UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT  LOS  ANGELES 


EDUCATION 


IN 


Religion  and  Morals 


GEORGE  ALBERT  COE,  Pii.  D. 

JOHN    EVANS    PROFESSOR    OF    MORAL    AND    INTELLECTUAL 
PHILOSOPHY     IN     NORTHWESTERN     UNIVERSITY 

AUTHOR   OF    "the    SPIRITUAL   LIFE"    AND   "tHE   RELIGION 
OF   A    MATURE   MIND  " 


76  2  g  <7 


CHICAGO        NEW   YORK        TORONTO 

FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 

LONDON    AND    EDINBURGH 
MCMIV 


Copyright,  1904 
Bv   FLEMING  H.   REVELL  COMPANY 


Chicago:  C3  Washington  street 
new  york:  158  fil'th  avenue 
toronto:  27  richmond  street,  w. 
london:  21  paternoster  square 
edinburgh:     30  st.   mary  street 


CONTENTS. 

PAGB. 

Preface     5 

Part  I. 
THE   THEORY. 

CHAPTBB. 

I.  The  Place  of  Character  in  Education W 

II.  The  Necessity   for  Religious   Education...        -1 

III.  God,  Nature,  and  Man  in  Education 33 

IV.  The   Christian   View    of   Childhood 44 

V.  The  Characteristics  of  Modern  Education..      70 
VI.  Contributions  of  Modern   Education   to   Re- 
ligion          85 

VII.  Education  as  Development  of  Living  Beings     98 

VIII.  Education  as  Development  of  Persons 119 

IX.  Punishment    and    Play 136 

X.  Reality    and    Symbol    as    Means    of   Educa- 
tion         151 

XI.  Personal  and  Social  Forces  in  Education..   171 

Part  II. 
THE  CHILD. 

XII.     The    Religious    Impulse 195 

XIII.     How    the    Impulse    Develops 208 

XIV.     Periods  of  Development — Infancy  and  Child- 
hood        226 

XV.     Periods  of  Development — Adolescence 247 

Part   III. 
INSTITUTIONS. 

XVI.     The    Family    271 

XVII.     The    Sunday    School 286 

XVIII.     Societies   and    Clubs 312 

XIX.     Christian    Academies   and    Colleges 325 

XX.     State   Schools    348 

Part   IV. 
THE   PERSPECTIVE. 
XXI.     The     Church     and     the     Child — A     Glance 

Backward    373 

XXII.     Education  and  Present  Religious  Problems.   389 

A  Selected  and  Classified  Bibliography 407 

Index     423 


PREFACE 

The  present  place  of  religious  and  moral 
education  in  our  civilisation  is  paradoxical. 
Everybody  knows  that  the  moral  health  of 
society  and  the  progress  of  religion  depend 
largely,  if  not  chiefly,  upon  the  training  of 
the  young  in  matters  that  pertain  to  char- 
acter, yet  no  other  part  of  education  receives 
so  little  specific  attention.  The  growth  of 
popular  government  has  increased  the  impor- 
tance of  high  character  in  the  people,  yet  no 
substitute  has  been  found,  one  has  scarcely 
been  sought,  for  the  dogmatic  religious  in- 
struction that  has  been  properly  excluded 
from  the  people's  schools.  At  a  time  when 
the  massing  of  the  people  in  cities  is  exposing 
children  as  never  before  to  the  forces  of  evil, 
family  training  in  religion  and  morals  suf- 
fers, according  to  all  accounts,  a  decline.  At 
the  bloom  period  of  the  Sunday  school,  com- 
plaints arise  that  the  populace  is  ignorant, 
perhaps  growingly  so,  of  the  Bible,  and  that 
the  rate  of  accessions  to  the  churches  is  de- 
creasing. The  age  of  reform  in  education, 
when   we    fancy    that   the    child    is    at   last 


6         EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION    AND    MORALS 

coming  to  his  own,  is  an  age  that  neglects  the 
most  important  end  of  education,  and  stands 
perplexed  as  to  the  means  to  this  end. 

We  are,  in  fact,  confronted  by  an  emer- 
gency in  respect  to  education  in  morals  and 
religion.  The  emergency  is  not  due,  how- 
ever, to  poverty  of  resources.  In  the  state 
school  and  the  Sunday  school  we  have  two 
vast  organisations  which  we  may  bring,  when- 
ever we  will,  under  the  more  complete  con- 
trol of  the  highest  educational  principles. 
The  nineteenth  century  made  extraordinary 
progress  in  respect  to  the  methods  of  teach- 
ing, and  the  results  are  ready  to  be  utilised 
in  church  and  home  and  school.  Modern  psy- 
chology, especially  the  child-study  movement, 
is  accumulating  knowledge  that  has  impor- 
tant applications  to  religious  and  moral  cul- 
ture. The  store  of  biblical  knowledge  and  of 
knowledge  of  religion  is  increasing,  and  it 
demands  to  be  spread  abroad. 

To  help  bring  this  supply  into  closer  touch 
with  the  need  is  the  aim  of  this  book.  It  is 
not  chiefly  a  book  of  methods,  nor  is  it  merely 
a  treatise  on  educational  theory.  It  is  rather 
an  effort  to  bring  the  broadest  philosophy  of 
education  into  the  closest  relation  to  prac- 
tice; to  show  how  principles  lead  directly  to 


PREFACE.  7 

methods,  and  so  to  strike  the  golden  mean 
between  unpractical  theorising  and  mere 
routine.  I  have  tried,  likewise,  to  exhibit 
the  principles  and  forces  of  religious  and 
moral  education  in  their  highest  concreteness 
as  factors  in  the  general  movement  of  human 
life.  A  large  part  of  our  present  difficulty 
lies  just  in  the  fact  that  our  philosophy  of 
life  has  been  isolated  from  practical  methods 
of  training  for  life,  and  that  this  training 
has  been  isolated  from  the  actual  life  of  the 
world. 

I  have  made  no  attempt  to  separate  the 
religious  from  the  moral  factors  in  educa- 
tion, for  the  simple  reason  that  they  belong 
together  in  practice.  Morals  are  not  religion, 
and  religion  is  not  morals;  nevertheless  full- 
grown  religion  includes  morals.  The  stand- 
point of  Christianity,  moreover,  is  that  of 
wholeness  of  life,  from  which  no  human 
good  can  be  excluded. 

The  division  of  the  book  into  relatively 
short  chapters,  and  of  the  chapters  into  num- 
bered sections  will,  it  is  hoped,  help  to  adapt 
the  whole  to  the  use  of  classes  for  teacher- 
training  without  detracting  from  the  com- 
fort of  the  general  reader.  Readers  who  de- 
sire to  pursue  further  any  of  the  topics  here- 


8         EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

in  discussed  will  find  information  as  to  read- 
ing in  the  classified  bibliography  that  is 
appended  to  the  work. 

George  Albert  Coe. 
Evanston,  Illinois,  September,  1904. 


PARTI 
THE  THEORY 


CHAPTER  I 

THE   PLACE    OF    CHARACTER    IN   EDUCATION 
/  ^  -2.  Si^ 
1.  Three  Factors  What     makes     S  C  h  O  0  I  S 

in  the  Idea  of  t        ■,     . 

Education.  necessary,    and    what    are 

they  for?     These  questions 
can  be  answered  by  a  simple  analysis  of  facts 
with   which   everyone  is   familiar.      Schools 
exist,  in  the  first  place,  because  children  exist, 
that  is,  because  the  race  includes  individuals 
who  are  incomplete  but  capable  of  developing. 
In   the  second   place,   schools   exist  because 
there  are  higher  and  lower  kindg  of  mature 
^life.    Children  are  schooled  for  something.  A 
^  conception  of  a  goal,  or  a  kind  of  life  that  is 
^  really  worth  living,  presides,  explicitly  or  im- 
*!*•  plicitly,  over  all  educational  effort.    Finally, 
^    schools  exist  because  adults  possess  accumu- 
lated results  of  experience  as  to  what  is  the 
better  and  what  the  less  good  life.    Education 
gives  to   children   the  benefit  of  experience 
other  than  their  own,  and  in  advance  of  their 
own.     Thus  the  factors  involved  in  the  idea 
of  education  are  these:    An  immature  being, 
a  goal  or  destiny  for  life,  and  older  human 


12        EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION    AND    MORALS 

beings  who  can  help  the  younger  to  realize 
this  goal  or  destiny. 

2.  Over- Emphasis        Each  of  these  factors  has 

upon  the  Adult  i  j.  .• 

Point  of  View.  been  at  some  time  so  promi- 

nent in  the  minds  of  men 
as  to  obscure  one  or  both  of  the  others.  Up 
to  comparatively  recent  times,  the  value  of 
adult  experience  has  so  occupied  the  thoughts 
of  educators  as  to  prevent  them  from  seeing 
the  necessity  of  understanding  childhood. 
Adult  interests,  ways  of  looking  at  things, 
rules  of  conduct,  were  assumed  as  a  standard 
for  all,  and  the  school  accordingly  aimed  to 
produce  conformity  more  than  it  aimed  to 
secure  development.  "Modern"  education  is 
based,  first  ^of  all,  upon  recognition  of  the 
child  as  one  of  the  determining  factors.  The  * 
differences  between  the  child  mind  and  the  «-, 
adult  mind  are  noted,  and  the  whole  notion  of  ,  > 
education  has  become  an  application  of  the 
notion  of  development.  ^.• 

8.  Over- Emphasis  Over-emphasis  upon  the 
upon  the  Goal.  ,  i     ^  •  r> 

goal  or  destiny  oi  man  is  a 

general  characteristic  of  mediaeval  education. 
The  school  was  a  handmaid  of  the  church, 
and  the  church  conceived  her  mission  to  men 
as  that  of  saving  their  souls  from  eternal  per- 
dition.    A  religion  broad  enough  to  include 


PLACE    OP    CHARACTER    IN    EDUCATION        13 

everything  that  is  worthy  of  being  a  part  of 
our  temporal  life,  and  a  religious  education 
equally  broad,  were  not  characteristic  of  the 
period.  The  medigeval  view  of  religion  was 
exclusive  rather  than  inclusive;  it  contrasted 
the  goods  of  religion  with  the  goods  of  this 
world,  the  blessings  of  eternal  salvation  with 
the  fleeting  things  of  time;  and  as  a  result 
it  could  not  utilise  in  education  the  whole  of 
accumulated  experience,  but  only  a  part  of 
it.  The  educator  was  the  priest— not  the 
man  within  the  priest,  but  the  priest  as  rep- 
resenting the  goal  of  life  abstracted  from 
the  content  of  life.  For  the  same  reason 
the  point  of  view  of  the  child  himself  was 
ignored,  and  the  way  was  left  open  for  re- 
pression and  forced  conformity  as  distin- 
guished from  development. 

4.  Over- Emphasis        At  the  present  time  this 

upon  the  Child.  ^       .  . 

tendency      is      no      longer 

dominant.  Education  has  been  brought  close 
to  the  life  that  now  is,  so  close,  in  fact,  that 
•we  sometimes  forget  to  ask  what  this  life 
really  signifies,  what  its  goal  is.  Moreover, 
another  temptation  to  forget  what  the  child 
is  to  be  educated  for,  grows  out  of  the  ex- 
traordinary emphasis  that  modern  education 
places  upon  the  child  himself.     The  laws  of 


14       EDUCATION    IN   RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

the  child-mind  yield  laws  for  educating  that 
mind.  We  are  not  to  conform  the  child  to 
adult  points  of  view,  but  the  teacher  is  to 
conform  himself  to  the  point  of  view  of  the 
pupil.  As  Froebel  says,  "Education  and  in- 
struction should  from  the  first  be  passive, 
observant,  protective,  rather  than  prescribing, 
determining,  interfering. ' '  ^  From  too  ex- 
clusive attention  to  this  principle,  modern 
education  (though  not  Froebel)  tends  to  for- 
get its  own  goal.  It  looks  backward  to  the 
laws  and  forces  of  the  child's  mind,  rather 
than  forward  to  the  destiny  that  is  to  be 
achieved.  Nevertheless  education  is  for 
something.  It  is  development,  but  develop- 
ment toward  something  as  well  as  away  from 
something.^ 
5.  The  Aim  of  What,  then,  is  the  goal  of 

Education.     Is  it  -,         ,  •       « 

knowledge?  education? 

Most  persons,  if  asked 
what  the  child  is  supposed  to  receive  from 
the  educational  process,  would  reply  that 
he  receives  instruction,  knowledge,  intel- 
lectual  training.       The   success   of   a  school 

1 W.  H.  Herford :  The  Students'  Froebel.  Boston, 
1894,  p.  5. 

2  "It  is  the  danger  of  the  'new  education'  that  it  re- 
gards the  child's  present  powers  and  interests  as  some- 
thing finally  significant  in  themselves." — John  Dewey  : 
The  Child  and  the  Curriculum  (Chicago,  1902),  page  20, 


PLACE    OF    CHARACTER    IN    EDUCATION       15 

is  popularly  measured  by  the  rapidity 
with  which  its  pupils  appear  to  in- 
crease their  stock  of  learning.  This  notion 
arises  in  our  minds  in  a  natural  way,  for  it 
is  a  result  of  a  long  historical  process,  and— 
we  may  add — of  an  ancient  error.  Man  has 
been  defined  as  a  rational  animal,  and  his 
moral  and  spiritual  life  have  been  supposed 
to  rest  upon  and  grow  out  of  a  set  of  ideas 
either  reasoned  out  or  believed  in.  Knowl- 
edge and  intellectual  culture  were  therefore 
regarded  as  the  essential  marks  of  an  edu- 
cated man.  We  shall  have  occasion  in  other 
chapters  to  discuss  the  relation  of  knowing 
and  doing.  Here  it  is  sufficient  to  note 
merely  that  the  intellectualistic  notion  of  man 
has  been  abandoned  by  the  thought  of  our 
time,  or  rather  set  into  relation  to  the  com- 
plementary truth  that  man  is  will  as  well  as 
intellect.  A  corresponding  change  is  taking 
place  in  our  notions  of  education. 

6.  Is  it  Power?  With  the  enlarging  con- 

trol over  nature,  and  the 
vast  expansion  of  commerce  and  industry  that 
have  followed  the  triumphs  of  modern  sci- 
ence and  invention,  there  has  arisen  a  de- 
mand for  men  who  can  do  things— men  who 
can  build  railroads  and  steamships,  manage 


16       EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

vast  properties,  organise  and  lead  men. 
Under  the  influence  of  these  practical  de- 
mands, the  populace  has  tended  to  modify 
its  conception  of  the  aim  of  education  in  the 
direction  of  power  and  effectiveness  as  dis- 
tinguished from  both  learning  and  mental 
acuteness.  Instead  of  the  "clear,  cold,  logic- 
engine"  which  mere  intellectualism  regards 
as  the  proper  product  of  education,  the  drift 
of  popular  thought  is  now  toward  another 
kind  of  mental  engine,  the  kind  that  keeps  the 
practical  machinery  of  life  in  motion.  But 
we  cannot  stop  here.  For  modern  commerce 
and  industry  are  not  more  distinguished  by 
a  new  relation  of  man  to  things  than  they 
are  by  a  new  relation  of  man  to  man.  The 
relations  between  men  are  becoming  wider 
and  more  complex;  there  is  greater  depend- 
ence of  one  upon  another;  and  just  at  this 
juncture  the  modern  city  springs  up  to  teach 
us  that  we  are  still  in  the  rudiments  of  the 
art  of  living  together.  Meanwhile  the  ex- 
periment in  popular  government  is  seen  tc 
depend  for  its  outcome  upon  the  kind  of  char- 
acter that  prevails  among  the  people. 

7.  Is  it  Social  These       conditions      arc 

Adjustment?  p  ,,  ,  ,  « 

lorcmg     upon     thoughtru 

men  a  conviction  that  the  great  need  of  oui 


PLACE    OF    CHARACTER    IN    EDUCATION       17 


is  a  full-grown,  wisely  directed  social 

c.      piousness,     and    that     the     development 

'•      ;of  must  be  the  aim  of  education.     The 

)1  is  an  instrument  of  society  for  social 

.     It  must  not  merely  train  the  intellect, 

irt    knowledge,    and    develop    power;    it 

m     ;  also  fit  the  individual   for  occupying 

proper  place  in  the  social  whole.     The 

I  .      is  already  past  when  an  intelligent  edu- 

OP     :*  can  think  that  his  work  consists  in  train- 

or  instructing  individuals  as  such.     Of 

se  education  is  training  of  individuals, 

more  attention  than  ever  is  being  paid 

idividuality,  but  the  final  consideration  is 

the  individual  taken  by  himself,  but  fill- 

the  proper  place  of  an  individual  in  so- 

r.    This  implies  respect  for  the  rights  and 

rests  of  one's  fellows,  readiness  to  co-ope- 

for  common  ends,  and  a  sense  of  political 

onsibility.     Thus  the  end  of  true  educa- 

is  seen  to  fall  within,  not  outside  of,  the- 

ire  of  ethics. 

.      ,.      .  That  education  aims  not 

ducation  is 

cai  in  both        at  mere  knowledge  or  mere 

and    Process,     p^^^.^^.     ^f     ^^^     j^-^^^     ^^^ 

ler  at  knowledge  and  power  put  to  right 
5  is  fully  recognized  by  the  educational 
aght,  though  not  by  the  popular  opinion, 


18       EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

of  the  day.^  The  advance  movement  in  reli- 
gious education  takes  its  start,  not  in  an  edu- 
cational atmosphere  that  is  indifferent  to  the 
higher  values  of  life,  but  in  one  that  is  al- 
ready suffused  with  moral  aspiration.  Here 
and  there,  no  doubt,  a  teacher  entertains  a  con- 
trary ideal  of  his  work ;  probably  the  number 
of  teachers  who  have  not  awakened  to  serious 
reflection  upon  the  nature  of  their  work  is 
considerable ;  but  certainly  the  general  mass 
of  those  who  do  reflect  will  be  found  by  any 

'  Witness  the  following  typical  definitions  and  proposi- 
tions : 

Nicholas  Murray  Butler  :  "Education  is  'a  gradual  ad- 
justment to  the  spiritual  possessions  of  the  race." — The 
Meaning  of  Education   (New  York,  1898),  page  17. 

J.  G.  Compayre  :  Education  is  "the  sum  of  the  reflec- 
tive efforts  by  which  we  aid  nature  in  the  development 
of  the  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral  faculties  of  man. 
In  view  of  his  perfection,  his  happiness,  and  his  social 
destination." — Lectures  on  Pedagogy  (Boston,  1898), 
pages  12f. 

William  .Tames :  "Education  cannot  be  better 
described  than  by  calling  it  the  organization  of  acquired 
habits  of  conduct  and  tendencies  to  behavior." — Talks 
to  Teachers   (New  York,  18'J9),  page  29. 

Herbert  Spencer :  "To  prepare  us  for  complete  living 
is  the  function  which  education  has  to  discharge." — 
Education    (New  York,   1872). 

John  Dewey :  "I  believe  that  education  is  the  funda- 
mental   method    of   social    progress   and    reform I 

believe  that  education  Is  a  regulation  of  the  process  of 
coming  to  share  in  the  social  consciousness." — My  Peda- 
gogic Creed   (New  York,  1897),  page  16. 

Arnold  Tompkins  :  "The  true  end  of  teaching  is  one 
with  the  true  aim  of  life  :  and  each  lesson  must  be  pre- 
sented with  the  conscious  purpose  of  making  the  most 
out  of  the  life  of  the  one  taught." — The  Philosophy  of 
Teaching  (Boston,  1895),  page  71. 

J.  P.  Munroe  :  "The  question  to  be  asked  at  the  end 
of  an  educational  step  is  not  'What  has  the  child 
learned?"  but  'What  has  the  child  become?'" — The 
Educational   Ideal    (Boston,  1896),  page  2. 


PLACE    OP    CHARACTER    IN    EDUCATION        19 

inquirer  to  occupy  the  ethical  standpoint. 
Moreover,  the  ethical  end  is  not  thought  of  as 
a  far-off  culmination  of  one's  education,  but 
as  an  idea  that  is  to  be  realized  in  every  step 
of  the  educational  process.  The  child  is  to 
grow  continuously  in  the  moral,  as  in  the  in- 
tellectual life,  and  these  two  aspects  of  life 
are  regarded  as  being  properly  inseparable. 
Every  study  is  to  contribute  directly  to  the 
growth  of  the  moral  self.  The  school,  in  fact, 
now  becomes  a  miniature  society  united  by 
the  ethical  bond  of  regard  for  one  another, 
and  each  task  is  wrought  with  an  ethical  pur- 
pose or  inspiration  as  real  as  that  of  mature 
men  in  their  respective  callings.^ 

9.  Education  We  are  now  in  position  to 

must  take  Cog-  o  i    ■  i 

nizance  of  the         formulate  a  general  concep- 

true  Nature  and       tion  of  education.    Educa- 

Destiny   of   Man,  .  /ze      -     -  -a. 

tion  IS  any  ettort  to  assist 
the  development  of  an  immature  human  being 
toward  the  proper  goal  of  life.  This  defini- 
tion takes  full  account  of  the  three  factors 
which  we  noted  at  the  outset.  It  recognises  the 

1  "I  believe  that  the  school  is  primarily  a  social  in- 
stitution. Education  being  a  social  process,  the  school 
is  simply  the  form  of  community  life  in  which  all  those 
agencies  are  concentrated  that  will  be  most  effective  in 
bringing  the  child  to  share  in  the  inherited  resources  of 
the  race,  and  to  use  his  own  powers  for  social  ends.  I 
believe  that  education,  therefore,  is  a  process  of  living 
and  not  a  preparation  for  future  living." — .John  Dewey  : 
My  Pedagogic  Creed  (New  York,  1897),  page  7. 


20       EDUCATION   IN   RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

educator  who  makes  the  effort  from  the  stand- 
point of  maturity,  the  child  with  his  laws  of 
development,  and  the  truth  that  some  kind  of 
life  is  better  than  other  kinds.  Yet  the  defi- 
nition remains  formal  because  it  does  not  tell 
us  what  sort  of  life  is  worth  living  and  de- 
veloping toward.  It  assumes  the  ethical  point 
of  view,  but  it  leaves  the  ethical  ideal  in  un- 
certainty. We  make  prog'ress  if  we  say  that 
the  proper  goal  of  life  is  social  existence,  and 
so  change  our  definition  to  the  following: 
Education  is  any  effort  to  assist  the  develop- 
ment of  an  immature  human  being  toward 
social  adjustment  and  efficiency.  But  we  can- 
not rest  in  this  definition  unless  we  are  will- 
ing to  say  that  the  proper  goal  of  life  is 
simply  social  adjustment  and  efficiency,  and 
nothing  more.  Certainly  education  cannot 
accept  as  its  end  anything  less  than  the  high- 
est destiny  that  man  is  capable  of.  Therefore, 
any  satisfactory  answer  to  the  question, 
"What  is  education?"  must  include  an  an- 
swer to  the  question,  "What  is  the  highest 
capacity  of  man  ? ' ' 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   NECESSITY    FOR   RELIGIOUS    EDUCATION 

10.  Religious  We  have  just  seen  that 

Education   is  that        ,         ,.  .,  p^ 

whicb-Recognises     education  necessarily  refers 

Man's  Divine  to  the  goal  of  life,  whatever 

®^  '"^'  that  goal  may  be.       "The 

true  end  of  teaching  is  one  with  the  true 
aim  of  life."  According  to  our  concep- 
tion of  the  meaning  of  life,  then,  will 
be  our  conception  of  education.  He  who  re- 
gards the  acquisition  of  mere  things  as  man's 
supreme  interest  will  think  of  education  in 
narrowly  utilitarian  terms.  To  him  it  will 
signify  apprenticeship  to  a  trade,  the  mastery 
of  manual  and  mental  tools,  the  learning  of 
such  facts  and  the  cultivation  of  such  habits 
as  will  enable  one  to  utilise  nature's  resources 
and  get  the  better  of  one's  fellows.  On  the 
other  hand,  he  who  thinks  of  life  in  ethical 
terms  will  think  of  education  in  ethical  terms 
also.  To  him  "the  most  truly  practical  edu- 
cation is  that  which  imparts  the  most  numer- 
ous and  the  strongest  motives  to  noble  ac- 
tion."^ He  realises  that  "none  of  us  liveth 
to  himself,  and  none  dietli  to  himself,"  but 

1  Thomas  Davidson:     History  of  Education  (New  York, 
1901),  page  260. 


22       EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

rather  that  the  individual  can  realise  himself 
only  through  society.  Education  then  be- 
comes a  means  of  introducing  young  life  to  its 
proper  place  in  the  social  organism.  If, 
finally,  we  believe  that  complete  self-realisa- 
tion requires  not  only  human  society,  but  also 
fellowship  with  God,  then  it  follows  that  for 
us  education  is  the  effort  to  assist  immature 
human  beings  toward  complete  self-realisation 
in  and  through  fellowship  with  both  their  fel- 
lows and  God.  Under  this  conception  true 
education  does  not  stop  with  the  development 
of  individual  power,  as  under  the  first  of  the 
notions  just  described,  or  with  mere  social 
adjustment,  as  under  the  second,  but  it  in- 
cludes them  both  and  also  something  more.  It 
aims  at  individual  power,  but  forbids  the 
selfish  use  thereof;  it  aims  at  social  adjust- 
ment, but  holds  that  complete  society  includes 
God  and  man. 

11.  It  Aims  (1)  to  This  standpoint  may  be 
Religious  Nature,  approached  in  three  other 
ways,  from  each  of  which 
it  receives  further  illumination.  First,  since 
education  is  effort  to  develop  the  child,  to 
bring  his  germinal  powers  to  maturity,  we 
may  ask  whether  the  child  has  a  religious 
nature,  as  he  has  also  a  social  nature.     The 


NECESSITY   FOR  RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION       23 

detailed  answer  to  this  question,  and  the  evi- 
dence therefor,  will  be  given  later.  Here  it  is 
sufficient  to  note  that  the  possession  of  a  re- 
ligious nature  on  the  part  of  the  child  is  a 
necessary  presupposition  of  religious  educa- 
tion. For,  as  we  have  already  seen,  to  edu- 
cate is  not  to  secure  conformity  to  adult  ideas 
and  practices,  but  to  help  the  immature 
powers  of  the  child  to  unfold  and  to  grow. 
The  demand  for  religious  education  that  is 
being  heard  at  the  present  day  does  not  add 
anything  to  the  formal  conception  of  educa- 
tion as  development  of  native  capacities  to- 
ward complete  living,  but  it  asserts  that,  just 
as  the  social  destiny  is  pre-formed  in  the  men- 
tal structure,  so  also  is  the  religious  destiny, 
and  that  in  any  complete  education  the  one 
as  well  as  the  other  must  be  developed.^ 

12.  (2)  To  Trans-        We  have  just  approached 

mit   the    Religious  ,.    .  -,  .■         .^  ■, 

Heritage  of  the  religious  education  through 
Race.  a  consideration  of  the  child. 

We  may  also  approach  it 
through  the  conception  of  the  adult  who  un- 
dertakes to  help  the  child.  For,  included  in 
the  accumulated  experience  whereby  men  are 
fitted  to  help  childhood  is  religion.     Butler 

^  See  addresses  by  George  A.  Coe  and  Edwin  D.  Star- 
buck  in  Proceedings  of  Tlie  Religious  Education  Associa- 
tion  (Cliicago,  1903 1,  pages  44-59. 


24       EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

"defines  education  as  "a  gradual  adjustment 
to  the  spiritual  possessions  of  the  race.  "^  Un- 
der the  term  "spiritual  possessions"  he  in- 
cludes the  scientific  inheritance,  the  literary 
inheritance,  the  aesthetic  inheritance,  the  in- 
stitutional (or  politico-social)  inheritance, 
and  the  religious  inheritance,  to  all  five  of 
which  the  child  is  entitled.  Through  long 
labor  and  pain,  through  experiment  and  re- 
flection, the  race  has  acquired  ideas,  habits, 
institutions,  all  of  which  are  of  recognised 
worth,  but  few  of  which  could  be  acquired  by 
anyone  through  his  unaided  powers  even  in 
the  longest  lifetime.  Education  puts  each 
new  generation  into  possession  of  these  race- 
acquisitions.  As  someone  has  said,  this  en- 
ables each  generation  to  stand  upon  the  shoul- 
ders of  the  last.  Applying  this  to  religious 
education,  we  may  say  that  it  is  the  process 
whereby  adults  who  have  achieved  something 
of  right  relations  to  their  fellows  and  to  God 
assist  the  young  to  reach  similar  relations. 
13.  (3)  To  Adjust        The  third  method  of  ap- 

the  Race  to  its  ,     ,  ,  .    .       .      , 

Divine  proach  borrows  a  biological 

Environment.  notion.     Life   includes   ad- 

justment   to    environment, 
and  the  highest  life  is  that  which  has  the  most 

1  Nicholas  Murray  Butler :     The  Meaning  of  Education 
(New  York,  1898),  Lecture  I. 


NECESSITY  FOR  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION       25 


far-reaching  adaptations.  An  animal  wit^ 
eyes  adjusts  itself  to  distant  objects,  as  well 
as  to  those  that  are  in  contact  with  the  body. 
When  memory  appears  it  results  in  adapta- 
tion to  the  invisible  and  the  future. 
Mind  as  a  whole  can,  in  fact,  be  looked 
upon  as  an  instrument  of  adjustment. 
Conscience  and  the  social  instinct  bring 
about  conduct  adapted  to  the  social  en- 
vironment, and,  if  religion  be  true,  the  re- 
ligious impulse  adjusts  the  individual  to  God, 
who  environs  us  all.  Under  this  biological 
figure,  education  may  be  looked  upon  as  a 
special  factor  in  the  universal  process  of  re- 
lating living  beings  to  their  world,  and  re- 
ligious education  as  the  most  universal  or  far- 
reaching  part  thereof.  Moreover,  since  the 
religious  aim  in  education  includes  the  ethical 
or  social,  religious  education  is  the  adaptation 
not  merely  of  individuals  but  also  of  society 
or  the  species  to  the  divine  environment.  Ac- 
cepting the  notion  that  education  consists  of 
acts  performed  by  society  for  social  ends,  we 
reach  this  final  outcome  of  o\ir  biological  fig- 
ure: In  religious  education  organised  man 
provides  for  a  progressive  adaptation  of  the 
race  to  its  divine  environment.^ 

^  "Education  if?  the  eternal  process  of  superior  adjust- 
ment of  the  physically  and  mentally  developed,  free,  con- 


26       EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

14.  Religious  From     every     point     of 

Education    not  ■  a->  ^•    •  ^ 

Distinguished  by  ^lew,  then,  religious  educa- 
its  iVlethod.  tion    is    simply    education 

that  completes  itself  by 
taking  account  of  the  whole  child,  the  whole 
educator,  and  the  whole  goal  or  destiny  of 
man.  It  is  not  distinguished — primarily,  at 
least,  and  in  the  sequel  we  shall  see  not  at 
all— by  any  peculiarity  of  method  or  by 
any  peculiarity  in  its  means,  such  as 
the  Bible,  the  catechism,  or  the  personal 
influence  of  the  parent  or  teacher.  While 
it  is  inevitable  that  the  details  of  ma- 
terial and  of  method  will  vary  with  varying 
conceptions  of  the  end  in  view,  the  end,  not 
the  means,  is  the  fundamental  point  of  dif- 
ference. The  Sunday  school  is  a  school  in 
the  same  sense  as  the  public  institution  that 
bears  that  name.  Home  training  is  training 
in  the  same  sense  that  the  word  "training" 
bears  in  either  the  Sunday  school  or  the  day 
school.  Schools  and  training,  of  whatever 
kind,  rest  finally  upon  general  laws  of  the 
mind  and  body  of  the  being  that  is  to  be  de- 
veloped. 

Perhaps   the   simplest   illustration   of   this 

sclous,  human  being  to  God,  as  manifested  In  the  Intel- 
lectual, emotional,  and  volitional  environment  of  man." 
— H.  H.  Home:  The  Philosophy  of  Education  (New 
York,  1904),  page  285. 


NECESSITY  FOR  RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION       27 

point  is  the  law  of  habit.  This  law  is  basic  in 
all  training  whatsoever  because  it  is  the  gen- 
eral method  by  which  a  movable  element  of 
mind  or  character  becomes  a  fixture.  It  ap- 
plies to  the  intellect  no  more  than  it  does  to 
the  emotions ;  to  the  outward  act  no  more  than 
to  the  inward  motive  or  ideal.  The  only  way 
in  which  we  can  make  what  we  wish  to  out 
of  an  undeveloped  being  is  to  cause  him  to 
form  an  appropriate  habit.  What  is  true  of 
the  law  of  habit  is  true  also  of  all  the  general 
laws  of  the  mind  that  underlie  education. 
They  underlie  all  education,  and  necessarily 
so.  The  primary  difference  between  religious 
and  other  education,  accordingly,  is  the  end 
in  view,  or  the  conception  of  human  life  that 
it  represents. 

15.  What^  is  If^  then,  there  is  here  any 

Education?  fundamental    antithesis    at 

all,  it  is  not  only  an  an- 
tithesis ;  it  is  a  conflict.  For  the  sake  of  con- 
venience of  language,  and  especially  because 
the  public  schools  of  our  country  do  not  give 
religious  instruction,  "general"  education 
has  come  to  be  distinguished  not  only  from 
technical  and  professional  training  but  also 
from  training  in  religion.  There  results  an 
unfortunate  habit  of  thought.    Education  in 


28       EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

religion  is  looked  upon  as  a  kind  of  special 
training,  or  as  a  side  current  apart  from  the 
main  gulf-stream  of  culture.  Like  the  train- 
ing of  bookkeepers,  the  study  of  Sanskrit,  or 
the  exploration  of  the  polar  regions,  it  is  sup- 
posed to  pertain  simply  to  those  who  have  a 
special  interest  therein.  The  Sunday  school, 
and  even  religious  training  within  the  family 
are  therefore  regarded  as  mere  appendages  of 
the  educational  system.  But  religious  educa- 
tion can  no  more  accept  this  place  than  reli- 
gion itself  can  consent  to  be  a  mere  depart- 
ment of  life.  If  religion  were  just  a  specialty 
of  priests,  monks,  and  nuns ;  or  if  it  belonged 
to  Sunday,  but  not  to  week  days ;  or  if  it  ap- 
plied to  only  a  part  of  our  conduct  and  our 
ideals,  then,  indeed,  religious  education  and 
general  education  might  be  contrasted  with 
each  other.  In  that  case  we  would  do  well  to 
change  our  terminology.  Reserving  the  term 
education  to  designate  the  development  of  the 
man  as  such,  we  should  use  the  term  training 
to  indicate  the  special  preparation  for  a  par- 
ticular occupation  or  function,  as  medical, 
legal,  business,  or  religious  training.  But  re- 
ligion claims  to  belong  to  the  man  as  such.  It 
assumes  to  include  morals,  or  the  relations 
between  man  and  man,  and  indeed  to  reach  to 


NECESSITY  FOR  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION       29 

every  aim  or  ideal  whatsoever.  Whatever  re- 
ligion may  have  been  to  early  man,  and  what- 
ever it  may  be  to  other  civilisations  than  our 
own,  to  US  it  is  an  all-inclusive,  all-command- 
ing principle,  the  very  stuff  that  human  life 
is  made  of,  or  it  is  nothing  at  all.  Conse- 
quently, for  us  religious  education  is  simply 
education  in  the  complete  sense  of  that  term, 
or  else  it  is  not  education,  but  mere  special 
training.  It  is  therefore  not  strictly  correct 
to  call  it  a  part,  even  a  necessary  part,  of 
general  education.  Special  times  and  places 
and  material  may,  of  course,  be  set  apart  with 
a  special  view  to  the  religious  development  of 
the  child,  but  only  in  order  that  his  whole 
development,  in  every  department,  may  be 
raised  to  the  religious  level.^ 
16.  The  Unity  of  In  reality  we  have  here 

F?oTthr  ^^^         reached  the  principle  of  the 
Psychological  unity    of    education.      The 

°'"    °  '         principle  asserts  that  edu- 

cation   is    not    made    up    by    aggregating 

1  Nicholas  Murray  Butler  opposes  the  use  of  the 
term  'religious  education'  on  the  ground  that  education 
Is  a  unitary  process  and  that  religious  training,  intel- 
lectual training,  etc.,  apart  from  the  whole,  have  no  real 
existence  as  education. — See  Lecture  I  in  Principles  of 
Religious  Education  (New  York,  1900).  \\ith  this  gen- 
eral point  of  view  I  think  we  may  agree  at  the  same 
time  that  we  employ  the  term  religious  education  to 
designate — not  a  part  of  general  education,  but — the 
essential  character  of  any  truly  general  development  o( 
the  human  person. 


30       EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

parts,  each  of  which  exists  on  its  own 
account,  but  that  it  is  rather  like  the  sin- 
gle life  that  realises  itself  in  the  various 
organs  of  a  human  body.  The  reasons  for  this 
point  of  view  are  three-fold.  In  the  first 
place,  the  child  himself  is  a  unit.  He  is  not  a 
bundle  of  faculties — an  intellect,  plus  a  will, 
jylus  a  heart,  etc.  The  old  fashioned  faculty- 
psychology,  which  thus  divided  the  man,  is  a 
thing  of  the  past.  The  whole  child  is  at  work 
in  each  of  his  studies,  not  memory  in  one, 
reason  in  another,  perception  in  a  third ;  and 
if  the  teacher  cannot  get  the  whole  child  thus 
engaged  the  effort  at  teaching  fails.  The  idea 
of  education,  accordingly,  is  not  that  the  child 
acquires  first  one  thing,  then  another,  but  that 
he  is  first  one  thing,  and  then  he  develops  in- 
to something  different.  The  principle  of  unity 
thus  carries  us  back  once  more  to  the  ethical 
conception  of  education,  that  is,  the  concep- 
tion of  what  the  child  is  becoming. 
17.  (2)  From  the  From  the  ethical  point  of 

Ethical    Point   of  .  ,  •   i  ,        i- 

Yjg^_  View,  also,  we  quickly  dis- 

cover that  education,  right- 
ly considered,  is  a  unit.  For  the  ethical 
view  of  life  is  an  effort  to  introduce  into  life, 
or  to  discover  within  life,  organisation,  har- 
mony, unity.    We -begin  our  existence  as  crea- 


NECESSITY   FOR  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION        31 

tures  of  mere  impulse.  The  little  child  is  ab- 
sorbed first  in  one  situation,  then  in  another; 
he  does  not  connect  them  or  feel  the  need  of 
doing  so ;  as  far  as  his  consciousness  goes,  life 
is  framentary  and  unorganised.  What  edu- 
cation has  to  do  for  him  is  to  bring  into  his 
impulses  due  subordination  of  one  to  an- 
other ;  into  his  fragmentary  interests  a  princi- 
ple of  organisation ;  into  his  life  as  a  whole  a 
purpose  and  a  meaning.  That  is,  he  is  to  de- 
velop toward  an  ideal  self,  and  this  ideal 
presides  as  mistress  over  the  whole  process. 
Education  is  unitary,  then,  not  merely  be- 
cause in  the  actual  self  of  the  child  there  is 
no  separation  of  faculties,  but  also  because 
the  ideal  of  a  completely  unified  self  is  an 
implicit  principle  of  the  whole  development. 

18.  (3)  From  the  The     unified     self     with 

o/viewf     °'  which  ethics  has  to  do  is,  of 

course,  the  social  self ,  or 
the  self  realised  in  society.  Religion  alone,  in 
strictness,  looks  to  that  complete  unification 
of  the  self  which  includes  not  only  my  fel- 
lows but  also  my  entire  world.  Ethics  as 
such  is  usually  considered  as  having  to  do 
merely  with  human  relationships;  religion 
with  our  relations  to  the  ultimate  ground  of 
our  being.     Now,   whether   or   not  religious 


32        EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

faith  is  well  founded,  the  aspiration  for  unity 
with  the  ultimate  ground  of  our  being  is  im- 
plicit in  all  education.  The  endeavor  of  all 
of  us  as  men  is  to  find  ourselves  at  home  in 
this  our  world.  The  practical  interest  in  con- 
trolling nature  and  the  theoretical  interest  in 
knowing  her  blend  into  the  one  interest  of 
overcoming  the  apparent  opposition  between 
the  self  and  its  world.  Self-realisation  can 
never  be  complete  except  as  an  ultimate  unity 
is  found  here.  Thus  religion,  instead  of  be- 
ing a  department  of  education,  is  an  implicit 
motive  thereof.  It  is  the  end  that  presides 
over  the  beginning  and  gives  unity  to  all 
stages  of  the  process. 


CHAPTER  III 

GOD,  NATURE,   AND  MAN  IN  EDUCATION 

19.  The  Narrow  Thus    far   we   have   con- 

and  the   Broad  .  ,         ,      ,         , .  ■, 

Sense  of  siderecl  education  simply  as 

"Education."  a  voluntary  activity  on  the 

part  of  men,  an  effort  of  the 
older  to  help  the  younger.  This  is  education 
in  the  narrow  or  strictly  technical  sense.  But 
there  is  a  larger  sense  of  the  term,  also,  ac- 
cording to  which  it  designates  everything  that 
enters  into  the  process  of  shaping  the  char- 
acter of  the  child,  and  finally  everything  that 
shapes  mankind  in  the  large.^  Thus  we 
speak  of  the  education  of  a  nation,  as  Israel, 
or  of  the  human  race,  as  well  as  of  individu- 
als. We  say,  also,  that  nature  helps  in  vari- 
ous ways  to  educate  the  race  and  the  indi- 
vidual, and  that  "experience  is  a  stern  school- 
master." In  the  present  chapter  an  effort 
Avill  be  made  to  view  religious  education  in 
this  large  way,  and  especially  to  connect  the 
two  obvious  factors  in  it,  man  the  educator 

1  Cf.  J.  K.  F.  Rosenkranz  :     The  Philosophy  of  Educa- 
tion (New  York,  1889),  pages  10,  21f. 


34       EDUCATION   IN   RELIGION  AND   MORALS 

and  nature  the  educator,  with  God  as  edu- 
cator in  the  supreme  sense. 

20.  The  Divine  The    thought    that    God 

Education  of  -,         ,  ,  -, 

Ispael.  educates  men  is  a  very  old 

one.  "The  law,"  says  the 
Letter  to  the  Galatians  (3:  24)  "hath  been 
our  tutor  to  bring  us  unto  Christ."  This  ap- 
pears to  have  been  the  general  standpoint  of 
the  early  Christians  with  reference  to  the  his- 
tory of  Israel.  That  history  was  a  divine 
preparation  of  the  nation  for  receiving  the 
supreme  revelation  in  Christ.  God  spoke  to 
the  fathers  through  the  prophets,  and  by  this 
means  gradually  brought  about  the  fulness  of 
the  time  that  made  the  sending  of  his  own 
Son  a  practicable  measure.  Herein  the  early 
Christians  did  not  read  the  notion  of  race 
education  into  the  ancient  scriptures;  it  was 
already  there,  and  very  close  to  the  surface, 
too.  The  story  of  Israel  is  a  story  of  growth 
from  small  beginnings  to  a  great  nation;  of 
the  setting  of  tasks,  of  specific  instruction,  of 
testing,  punishing  and  rewarding,  all  with  a 
view  to  bringing  to  maturity  the  "son"  who 
was  "called  out  of  Egypt"  (Hosea,  11:  1). 
Jehovah  was  a  father,  and  Israel  was  a  child 
who  was  being  brought  up. 


GOD,   NATURE  AND   MAN   IN   EDtJCATION        35 

21.  The  Divine  By  extending  this  notion 

Education    of  .      ,  ,.,,,        «      ,, 

the  Race.  J^^t    ^    little    larther,    we 

come  to  think  of  divine 
providence  in  the  whole  of  human  history  as 
a  divine  education  of  the  race.  God  does  not 
merely  judge  the  nations,  punishing  evil  and 
rewarding  good;  he  also  trains  the  nations 
toward  righteousness.  The  growth  of  civili- 
sation is  the  progress  of  mankind  in  this  di- 
vine school.  Particularly  in  the  history  of 
religion  do  we  find  this  manifest.  Lessing, 
and  the  philosophers  of  religion  who  have 
built  upon  his  great  conception  of  the  divine 
education  of  the  human  race,  have  taught  us 
to  see  in  the  religions  of  the  world  a  gradual 
self-revelation  of  God  to  men.  This  is  a 
modern  idea,  and  yet  the  roots  of  it  were 
certainly  present  in  the  mind  of  Paul  when 
he  proclaimed  his  philosophy  of  religion  to 
the  Athenians.  God,  he  declared,  not  only 
created  men,  but  also  appointed  their  national 
existence,  and  implanted  in  them  an  impulse 
to  seek  after  him.  Further,  God  recognises, 
as  flowing  from  this  divinely  implanted  im- 
pulse, lower  as  well  as  higher  stages  of  re- 
ligion, and  in  Christ  he  brings  to  a  culmina- 
tion what  was  dimly  revealed  even  in  ignorant 
modes  of  worship    (Acts  17:  22-30).     At  a 


36       EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION  AND   MORALS 

later  point  in  our  study  we  shall  see  how  true 
it  is  that  the  race  begins  its  career  in  an  in- 
fantile state  and  moves  toward  maturity  only 
through  a  gradual  process  of  education. 

22.  The  Divine  But  the  race  consists  of 

Education  of  .,..,,  ,  ,i        t 

the  Individual.  individuals,  and  so  the  di- 
vine education  of  the  race 
is  the  divine  education  of  individual  boys  and 
girls.  Boys  and  girls,  let  us  say,  rather  than  ' 
men  and  women.  For  the  plasticity  that  is 
pre-requisite  to  education  largely  disappears 
when  youth  passes  into  full  manhood  and 
womanhood.  Maturity  is,  indeed,  the  great 
period  for  acquiring  things  and  knowledge, 
but  not  for  forming  character.  As  far  as  race 
progress  in  character  is  concerned,  the  chief 
contribution  that  maturity  can  make  is  to  ac- 
cumulate the  means  and  instruments  for  mak- 
ing the  next  generation  better  than  the  pres- 
ent through  improved  education.^    If  God  is 

1  "I  believe  that  education  is  the  fundamental  method 
of  social  progress  and  reform I  believe  that  all  re- 
forms which  rest  simply  upon  the  enactment  of  law,  or 
the  threatening  of  certain  penalties,  or  upon  changes  in 
mechanical  or  outward  arrangements,  are  transitory  and 
futile.... I  believe  that  the  community's  duty  to  educa- 
tion is,  therefore,  its  paramount  moral  duty.  By  law 
and  punishment,  by  social  agitation  and  discussion,  so- 
ciety can  regulate  and  form  itself  in  a  more  or  less  hap- 
hazard and  chance  way.  But  through  education  society 
can  formulate  its  own  purposes,  can  organise  its  own 
means  and  resources,  and  thus  shape  itself  with  deflnite- 
ness  In  the  direction  in  which  it  wishes  to  move." — John 
Dewey:  My  Pedagogic  Creed  (New  York,  1897),  pages 
16  f. 


GOD.  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  EDUCATION   37 

the  supreme  educatx)r  of  the  race,  he  is  for 
the  same  reason  the  supreme  educator  of  each 
child.  This  aspect  of  the  educational  prob- 
lem has  been  almost  entirely  overlooked,  even 
by  religious  teachei's.  Education  has  been 
persistently  thought  of  as  something  done  for 
the  child  by  his  elders,  while  the  possibility 
that  it  may  consist  still  more  in  something 
vi^rought  within  the  character  by  the  Divine 
Spirit  has  been  scarcely  dreamed  of.  It  will 
therefore  be  worth  while  to  see  how  we  are  to 
connect  the  thought  of  God  as  the  great  edu- 
cator of  the  race  with  the  humble,  everyday 
effort  of  parent  or  teacher  to  bring  up  a  child 
in  the  way  that  he  should  go. 

23.  The  Divine  First    of    all,    the    child 

Hand   in   the  /•      ^i     r>  r^     •>  -i 

Religious  Nature  comes  forth  from  God  bear- 
ed Man.  ing  the  image  of  the  Crea- 
tor. That  God  created  man 
in  his  own  image  may  once  have  seemed  to 
imply  many  grotesque  notions  of  God,  as  that 
he  has  a  physical  form  which  ours  resembles. 
But  the  phrase  never  loses  its  power  over  us 
because,  with  every  advance  in  our  concep- 
tions of  God,  we  discover  something  corre- 
sponding thereto  in  the  structure  of  our  own 
mind.  Man  has  a  religious  nature.  The  defi- 
nite establishment  of  this  proposition  is  per- 

/  ^  Z8C 


S8       EDUCATION   IN   RELIGION  AND  MORALS 

haps  the  greatest  service  that  the  history  and 
psychology  of  religion  have  performed.  Not 
very  long  ago  men  were  still  asking  whether 
religion  might  not  have  arisen  through  priest- 
craft or  statecraft,  or  at  least  through  some 
incidental  feature  of  human  experience.  Re- 
ligion was  looked  upon  as  a  theory  or  belief 
which  men  had  formed  for  themselves  some- 
what as  we  form  our  hypotheses  of  inhabit- 
ants in  other  planets.  Some  tribes  were  said 
to  be  entirely  without  religion,  and  hence  it 
was  inferred  that  religion  does  not  belong  to 
humanity  as  such.  But  the  '  tribe  destitute  of 
religion'  is  found  to  be  purely  imaginary, 
and  the  history  of  religion  begins  its  recital 
with  the  affirmation  that  man  as  such  has  a 
religious  impulse  out  of  which  have  sprung 
all  the  religions  of  the  world.^ 

Out  of  this  impulse  springs,  not  less, 
the  entire  religious  development  of  the  indi- 
vidual. Here  is  something  that  neither 
parent  nor  teacher  imparts,  something  that 
must  first  be  there  if  their  labor  is  to 
have  any  religious  effectiveness.  Into  the 
constitution  of  every  one  of  us  God  has 
wrought  his  plan  for  human  life.  In  every 
genuine   utterance   of   the   religious   impulse 

'  See,  for  example,  Morris  Jastrow  :  The  Study  of  Re- 
ligion  (New  York,  1901),  pages  195  f.,  293,  et  passim. 


GOD,  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  EDUCATION   39 

there  is  manifested  'prevenient  grace,'  the 
divine  empowering  and  inspiration  that 
'come  before'  our  human  acts  and  give  them 
effect.  Thus,  at  every  step  in  religious  edu- 
cation God  himself— the  present,  living  God, 
the  "Word  that  enlighteneth  every  man  coming 
into  the  world — is  the  supreme  factor. 

24.  The  Divine  -^  It  follows  that  parents 
Vocation  of  i     ^        i  i 

Parents  and  ^^^  teachers   are  properly 

Teachers.  instruments   in    the   divine 

hand  for  playing  upon  the 
divinely  constructed  strings  of  human  nature. 
Man  as  educator  is  not  the  complete  source  of 
his  own  activities.  His  desire  to  build  up 
right  character  in  the  young  is  not  an  inven- 
tion, it  is  an  inspiration.  The  same  hand  that 
impels  the  child  through  what  we  call  the 
religious  impulse  impels  the  educator  also  to 
supply  food  for  the  growth  of  that  impulse. 
And  what  a  vocation  is  this  of  parents  and 
teachers!  In  their  hands  as  in  no  others  lie 
the  reins  of  the  chariot  of  God.  In  the  na- 
ture of  things,  the  kingdom  of  God  must 
grow  chiefly  by  securing  control  of  young 
life.  The  religious  impulse  must  be  fed  and 
it  must  be  led  on  to  realise  its  full  manhood 
through  voluntary  obedience  to  Christ.  This 
is  religious  education.    It  controls  the  stream 


40       EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

at  its  source.  The  broad  river  of  humanity  is 
what  it  is  made  to  be  in  the  home  and  in  the 
school  of  whatever  kind.  Parents  and  teach- 
ers are  making  history;  they  are  making  or 
unmaking  civilisation;  they  are  promoting  or 
holding  back  the  triumph  of  God's  kingdom 
upon  the  earth.  They  are  doing  this  whether 
they  will  or  no.  The  young  life  that  touches 
their  life  is  plastic.  It  takes  the  shape  of  that 
with  which  it  comes  into  contact.  Every  par- 
ent, every  teacher,  and  indeed  every  person 
who  has  any  relation  to  young  life  has  there- 
fore a  divine  vocation.  He  is  set  apart, 
chosen,  to  reveal  God,  This  is  true  of  irre- 
ligious as  well  as  religious  parents,  of  teach- 
ers in  the  week-day  school  as  well  as  teachers 
in  the  Sunday  school.  Whoever  is  placed  where 
he  molds  the  life  of  a  child  or  youth,  however 
he  came  to  be  so  placed,  is  bound  to  this  serv- 
ice. 

25.  Nature  as  a  The    educational    reform 

Education.  ^^  the  last  century  is  char- 

acterised chiefly  by  two 
marks :  On  the  one  hand,  it  gives  a  new  rec- 
ognition to  natural  law  in  the  educational 
process,  and  on  the  other  hand  it  defines  the 
end  of  education  in  social  terms.  The  nature- 
side  appears  most  prominently  in  the  extraor- 


GOD,  NATURE  AND  MAN  IN  EDUCATION   41 

dinary  attention  given  to  the  child— his  phys- 
ical and  mental  structure,  his  spontaneous 
impulses,  the  stao^es  of  his  growth,  and  the 
relation  of  his  development  to  the  evolution 
of  the  human  species.  We  have  come  to  see 
that  education  is  not  imposed  by  us  upon  na- 
ture but  is  rather  a  voluntary  carrying  for- 
ward of  a  natural  process.  Every  sensation 
that  streams  in  upon  the  infant  mind  contrib 
utes  something  to  the  formation  of  the  per-^ 
sonality.  The  baby's  spontaneous  throwing 
about  of  arms  and  legs  helps  to  develop  the 
motor  centers  which  constitute  the  physical 
basis  of  will  and  self-control.  Play  is  a  gen- 
uine school  in  which  nature  drills  the  pupil 
in  every  faculty.  The  whole  contact  of  the 
child  with  nature  is,  in  fact,  educative.  But 
even  this  is  not  half  the  story.  For  in  the 
spontaneous  reactions  which  the  child  makes 
to  his  environment  we  behold  adaptive  mental 
traits  which  he  has  inherited  through 
his  relation  to  the  species,  and  the  species 
through  its  place  in  the  general  evolution  of 
living  beings.  The  past  of  the  race  speaks  in 
the  child,  and  the  past  of  life  upon  this^ 
planet  speaks  in  the  race.  The  social  instinct, 
for  example,  which  is  one  of  the  corner  stones 
of  all  character-building,    is    natural    in  the 


42       EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

complete  sense  of  the  term  nature,  and  it  has 
a  long  human  and  pre-human  history.  All 
our  deliberate  efforts  to  educate  can  do  no 
more  than  continue  the  work  thus  begun  by 
nature.  We  do  not  bestow  a  mental  consti- 
tution upon  the  child ;  we  merely  feed,  stimu- 
late, and  direct  what  is  already  there.  We 
may  say,  therefore,  that  education  carries  for- 
ward what  nature  has  already  begun.^ 

26.  The  Educative        What    then?       Shall   we 

Presence   of  God        ,i  •    i      .i     .      i  i 

in  Nature.  think  that,   because  educa- 

tion is  natural,  God  is  not  a 
factor  in  it?  Rather,  let  us  say  that,  just  be- 
cause evolution  has  provided  a  basis  upon 
which  our  spiritual  building  can  be  erected, 
just  because  the  movement  of  life  has  been 
upward  toward  the  capacity  and  the  impulse 
of  love  toward  God,  therefore  we  discover  God 

^  "Education  is  conscious  or  voluntary  evolution." — 
Thomas  Davidson:  History  of  Education  (New  York, 
1901),  page  1.  Cf.  Nicliolas  Murray  Butler:  The 
Meaning  of  Education  (New  York,  1898),  Lecture  I, 
and  the*  following  words  from  Bishop  Spalding:  "Life 
is  the  unfolding  of  a  mysterious  power,  which  in  man 
rises  to  self-consciousness,  and  through  self-conscious- 
ness to  the  knowledge  of  a  world  of  truth  and  order 
and  love,  where  action  may  no  longer  be  left  wholly 
to  the  sway  of  matter  or  to  the  impulse  of  instinct, 
but  may  and  should  be  controlled  by  reason  and  con- 
Bcience.  To  further  this  process  by  deliberate  and  In- 
telligent effort  is  to  educate.  Hence  education  is  man's 
conscious  co-operation  with  the  Infinite  Being  in  pro- 
moting the  development  of  life ;  it  is  the  bringing  of 
life  in  its  highest  form  to  bear  upon  life,  individual  and 
social,  that  it  may  raise  it  to  greater  perfection,  to  ever- 
increasing  potency." — J.  L.  Spalding :  Means  and  Ends 
of  Education  (Chicago,  1901),  page  72. 


GOD,  NATURE  AXD  MAN  IN  EDUCATION   43 

in  evolution  and  conclude  that  the  ultimate 
source  of  education  as  respects  nature,  the 
child,  and  the  educator — all  three — is  He  in 
whom  "we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our  be- 
ing. '  '^  This  way  of  regarding  nature  is  com- 
pleted in  the  universally  received  doctrine  of 
the  immanence,  or  abiding  presence,  of  God. 
This  means,  among  other  things,  that  ma- 
terial atoms  are  forms  of  divine  activity ;  that 
the  laws  of  nature  are  simply  the  orderly 
methods  of  his  rational  will,  which  is  in  com- 
plete control  of  itself ;  that  evolution  does  not 
suffer  any  break  when  man,  a  self  conscious 
and  moral  being,  appears,  because  the  whole 
of  evolution  is,  in  reality,  a  process  of  realis- 
ing a  moral  purpose ;  that  the  correlation  of 
mind  and  brain  is  just  the  phenomenal  aspect 
of  the  real  correlation  of  our  mind  with  the 
divine  power  which  sustains  us;  that  the  de- 
velopment, physiological  and  mental,  that 
man  receives  through  nature  is  part  of  an 
all-inclusive  educational  plan,  and  that,  in 
our  work  as  educators,  God  is  working 
through  our  reason  and  will  to  carry  forward 
the  universal  plan. 


^  See  Newman  Smyth :  Through  Science  to  Faith 
(New  York,  1902)  ;  also  Henry  Drummond  :  The  Ascent 
of  Man   (New  Yorli,   1898). 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE    CHRISTIAN   VIEW    OF   CHILDHOOD 

27.  Jesus  and  The  inclusion  of  nature 

Little   Children.  i     ,i  •    -j^      i     i-n  c 

and  the  spiritual  hie  oi 
man  in  a  single  conception,  as  was  done  in 
the  last  chapter,  brings  us  face  to  face  with 
the  Christian  conceptions  of  the  natural  and 
the  spiritual  man,  of  depravity  and  grace,  as 
far  as  these  have  a  bearing  upon  childhood. 
We  must,  in  short,  go  forward  from  the  stand- 
point of  religious  education  in  a  merely  gen- 
eral sense  to  that  of  specifically  Christian  edu- 
cation. 

The  central  idea,  the  controlling  principle 
of  such  education,  must  be  sought  in  the  life 
and  teachings  of  Jesus.  Here  we  are  at  once 
struck  by  a  distinctive  attitude  and  a  distinc- 
tive utterance.  It  is  clear  that  Jesus  was 
fond  of  children ;  he  had  the  same  tender  feel- 
ing, the  same  belief  in  them  that  every  nor- 
mal man  among  us  experiences  who  comes 
close  to  the  life  of  a  little  one.  To  Jesus  child- 
life  is  not  a  dark  picture,  but  a  bright  one.  It 
does  not  depress  his  soul  with  a  sense  of  evil 
or  of  danger,  but  lifts  it  up  with  a  feeling  of 
the  nearness  of  divine  things.  We  should  find 
this  in  the  picture  of  Jesus  taking  little  chil- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  VIEW  OF  CHILDHOOD  45 

dren  into  his  arms,  even  if  he  had  left  no  re- 
corded word  on  the  subject.  But  he  expressly 
declares  this  to  be  his  view.  He  took  little 
children  into  his  arms  and  "blessed  them." 
The  word  here  rendered  "blessed"  has  the 
same  root  as  our  term  "eulogy,"  and  in  this 
particular  passage  the  simple  root  is  strength- 
ened by  a  special  prefix  that  denotes  intensity. 
The  root-meaning,  "to  speak  well  of,"  has  ac- 
quired various  derivative  meanings,  but  it  is 
a  word  that  could  not  be  used  of  a  person  or  a 
thing  that  one  did  not  approve  of. 

28.  Jesus'  Teach-         This  of  itself  would   be 

ing  Concerning  i.    .      i    .  i  xu 

the  Child  and  the    enough  to  let  us  know  the 

Kingdom.  mind  of  the  Master  concern- 

ing childhood.  But  the 
Master  put  his  thought  into  still  more  specific 
form.  "For  of  such,"  he  said,  "is  the  king- 
dom of  God. ' '  The  ' '  of  such  "  is  a  possessive ; 
it  is  the  same  form  as  the  "theirs"  in  the  first 
Beatitude,  "Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit, 
for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven. "  That  is, 
Jesus  asserts  that  the  kingdom  of  God  be- 
longs to  little  children,  it  is  theirs.  The  state- 
ment is  not  that  the  kingdom  belongs  to  those 
who  are  like  little  children— that  is  a  sepa- 
rate statement  which  refers  to  adults. 
Adults  who  are  at  enmity  with  God  must  enter 


46       EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

the  kingdom  by  humbling  themselves  and  be- 
coming like  little  children,  but  to  little  chil- 
dren themselves  the  kingdom  already  be- 
longs. It  may,  perhaps,  be  significant  that 
this  passage  occurs  in  the  oldest  of  the  Gos- 
pels, that  of  Mark.  Additional  weight  is 
given  to  it  by  Jesus'  repeated  references  to 
childhood  as  an  illustration  of  the  qualities 
necessary  for  entering  the  kingdom  and  for 
attaining  greatness  therein. 

29.  Jesus'  View  A    distinction    is    made, 

Spiritual  then,  between  the  status  of 

Development.  little  children  and  that  of 

mature  and  wilful  sinners. 
The  latter  must  repent  and  be  converted,  but 
children,  already  possessing  the  life-principle 
of  the  kingdom,  require  spiritual  development. 
Jesus'  recorded  words  do  not,  it  is  true,  say 
all  this,  yet  all  of  it  is  implied  in  the  circum- 
stances under  which  he  spoke  the  words  that 
have  come  down  to  us.  He  was  speaking  to  a 
Jewish  audience.  Now,  as  soon  as  we  realise 
the  sense  that  a  Jewish  hearer  must  have 
found  in  his  words,  they  become  illuminated 
for  us.  Every  Jewish  child,  by  virtue  of  his 
blood,  was  regarded  as  under  the  covenant 
made  with  Abraham ;  he  was  already  a  mem- 
ber of  the  theocratic  kingdom.     In  no  sense 


THE  CHRISTIAN  VIEW  OF  CHILDHOOD  47 

was  he  an  outsider  who  had  to  be  brought  in. 
According  to  the  law  he  was  simply  to  be 
taught  from  infancy  the  story  of  Israel,  a 
story  in  which  he  belonged  from  birth,  and 
w'hen  he  reached  the  age  of  thirteen  he  be- 
came, as  a  matter  of  course,  subject  to  the 
whole  law.  This  conception  of  childhood 
Jesus  here  adopts,  spiritualises,  and  fills  with 
his  own  good  news  of  the  kingdom,  not  of  Is- 
rael, but  of  God.  As  the  Jewish  child  was 
within  the  Abrahamic  covenant  by  virtue  of 
descent  from  Abraham,  so  all  children  are 
within  the  household  of  God  by  virtue  of  the 
divine  grace  which  Jesus  here  announces. 
Normal  child  development,  then,  takes  place 
entirely  within  the  kingdom  of  grace.  It  con- 
sists of  a  gradual  apprehension  of  the  princi- 
ples of  the  kingdom,  and  increasing  partici- 
pation in  the  activities  and  responsibilities 
thereof.  The  parables  of  the  growth  of  the 
kingdom  applj^  to  the  indi\adual  as  well  as  to 
the  world  at  large.  In  both  spheres  the  law 
is  "first  the  blade,  then  the  ear,  then  the  full 
corn  in  the  ear." 

30.  What  should  ^^^e    shall    see,    after    a 

Christians  Expect    while,  that  the  assumption 

Children?  o^    responsibility     by     the 

Jewish  child  at  the  age  of 


48       EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

thirteen  is  a  normal  and  typical  fact.  A  tran- 
sition more  or  less  rapid,  more  or  less  pro- 
found, is  to  be  looked  for  in  the  early  and 
middle  years  of  adolescence.  But  children 
should  be  expected  to  remain  within  the  king- 
dom from  infancy,  so  that  the  adolescent  tran- 
sition, when  it  comes,  may  be  a  step,  not  into 
the  Christian  life,  but  within  the  Christian 
life.  Many  children  of  Christian  parents  do, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  reach  Christian  manhood 
in  this  way.  Taught  from  the  start  to  count 
themselves  children  of  God,  from  stage  to 
stage  of  their  growth  they  exercise  a  faith  that 
is  proportioned  to  their  powers.  These  rep- 
resent the  normal  development  of  a  child 
under  Christian  influences.  The  fact  that 
many  children  who  are  brought  up  in  Chris- 
tian homes  go  away  from  God  does  not  indi- 
cate that  Jesus  was  in  error  in  his  view  of  the 
child  and  his  development.  He  knew  that 
tares  may  spring  up  in  any  wheat  field,  and 
that  in  the  child  as  well  as  in  the  adult  the 
kingdom  wages  a  contest  with  evil.  But  who 
shall  say  how  much  of  this  falling  away  is  due 
to  a  general  failure  on  the  part  of  the  church 
to  apprehend  Jesus'  plan  of  the  kingdom? 
Many  Christian  parents  assume  that  their  chil- 
dren are  aliens  or  outsiders  who  must  wait  to 


THE  CHRISTIAX  VIEW  OF  CHILDHOOD  49 

be  brought  in  when  they  grow  older.  Many 
other  parents  who  believe  in  childhood  re- 
ligion nevertheless  neglect  to  teach  their  chil- 
dren unequivocally  that  they  are  already  chil- 
dren of  God.  The  present  alarming  falling 
away  of  the  children  of  the  church  is  just 
what  should  be  expected  under  present  condi- 
tions. 

31.  The  true  Idea        Qne    great   hindrance   to 

of    Christian  .-,  n    ^^  ^  j 

Nurture  has  been  the  lull  acceptance  and 
Obscured  by  the       practice  of  Jesus'  principle 

Doctrine  of  •      ^      i       p  i    • 

Depravity.  IS  to  be  lound  m  a  misun- 

derstanding of  the  facts 
that  underlie  the  doctrine  of  natural  deprav- 
ity. That  there  are  facts  back  of  this  doc- 
trine must  be  obvious  to  any  sober  observer 
of  life,  whether  that  of  the  race  or  that  of  the 
individual,  that  of  the  adult  or  that  of  the 
child.  In  every  one  of  us  the  good  has  a 
struggle  against  evil;  in  every  one  of  us  the 
good  is  so  modified  by  evil  that  ideal  charac- 
ter is  never  quite  attained.  Before  a  child  can 
form  a  moral  judgment  he  displays  tenden- 
cies which,  if  they  develop  without  check,  will 
issue  in  a  bad  character.  Nevertheless,  the 
doctrine  of  total  depravity  in  its  unrelieved 
form  (a  form  which  it  no  longer  bears)  con- 
tradicts the  whole  idea  of  religious  education. 


60       EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

For  it  says  that  there  is  nothing  in  the  child 
that  is  worth  bringing  out,  that  development 
can  do  nothing  for  him,  that  he  must  wait  for 
something  to  happen  to  him  before  he  can  so 
much  as  begin  to  be  religious.  The  only  con- 
ceivable training  for  a  being  in  this  condition 
would  be  external  and  chiefly  negative.  Fear 
might  be  employed  to  prevent  outbreaks,  and 
habits  of  external  conformity  to  religious  in- 
stitutions might  be  formed.  But  the  person- 
ality would  remain  undeveloped,  uneducated. 
This  would  be  carpentry,  an  external  shaping 
of  materials,  not  education,  which  is  the  inner 
development  of  a  self. 

There  is  no  way  to  educate  a  dead  soul. 
Life,  development,  education — this  is  the  as- 
cending series  of  conceptions.  Before  there  is 
education  there  must  be  life,  a  life  that  con- 
tains within  itself  a  law  of  development.  We 
shall  soon  see  how  theology  has  largely  over- 
come the  theoretical  difficulties  that  it  created 
for  itself  in  the  doctrine  of  total  depravity. 
But  we  have  not  yet  recovered  from  the  prac- 
tical difficulties  that  it  entailed  upon  the  laity. 
We  still  suffer  from  the  inertia  of  the  older 
view.  For  even  yet  we  scarcely  think  of  the 
child,  in  our  habitual  thought,  as  being  spirit- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  VIEW  OF  CHILDHOOD         51 

ually  alive.  Perhaps  we  do  not  distinctly  re- 
gard him  as  completely  dead,  but  we  certainly 
have  not  acquired  the  habit  of  seeing  the  life 
that  is  there  or  of  feeding  it  in  any  adequate 
manner. 

32.  Illustrations  The  pressing  necessity  of 

of  this  T 

Obscuration.  securmg     a     positive     and 

sharply  defined  point  of 
view  with  reference  to  the  child  makes 
it  advisable  that  we  should  look  with 
wide  open  eyes  at  the  immediate  past  of 
our  present  neglect.  The  past  is  not  so  much 
one  of  neglect  as  of  misunderstanding  and 
mishandling  of  the  child.  The  lot  of  the  child 
in  colonial  days  is  indicated  in  the  following 
passage  from  the  diary  of  Cotton  Mather: 
"I  took  my  little  daughter  Katy  [a  tot  of 
four  years]  into  my  Study  and  then  I  told  my 
child  I  am  to  dye  Shortly  and  shee  must, 
when  I  am  Dead,  remember  Everything  I  now 
said  unto  her.  I  sett  before  her  the  sinful 
Condition  of  her  Nature,  and  I  charged  her 
to  pray  in  Secret  Places  every  day.  That 
God  for  the  sake  of  Jesus  Christ  would  give 
her  a  new  Heart.  I  gave  her  to  understand 
that  when  I  am  taken  from  her  she  must  look 
to  meet  with  more  humbling  Afflictions  than 


52       EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION  AND   MORALS 

she  does  now  she  has  a  Tender  Father  to  pro- 
vide for  her.  "^ 

In  1831  the  American  Tract  Society  pub- 
lished a  little  book  (abridged  from  an  earlier 
one  printed  in  Great  Britain)  called  Persua- 
sives to  Early  Piety,  by  J.  G.  Pike.  What 
motives  to  piety  were  set  before  the  young  in 
1831?  First  and  foremost  is  fear.  In  the 
Introductory  Address  to  the  Young  Reader 
the  author  exclaims:  "Of  how  little  conse- 
quence is  this  poor,  transient  world  to  you, 
who  have  an  eternal  world  to  mind ! "  Of  the 
value  of  religion  he  says :  ' '  The  living  neg- 
lect it,  but  the  dead  know  its  value.  Every 
saint  in  heaven  feels  the  worth  of  religion 
through  partaking  of  the  blessings  to  which  it 
leads ;  and  every  soul  in  hell  knows  its  value 
by  its  want."  He  goes  on  to  say  that  the 
occasion  for  religion  is  our  depravity.  "The 
sinfulness  of  your  nature,  my  young  friend, 
is  not  partial;  it  is  not  confined  to  some  of 
your  powers  or  faculties;  but,  like  a  mortal 
poison,  spreads  through  and  pollutes  the 
whole.  .  .  So  far  are  our  best  actions,  in 
our  natural  state,  from  helping  us,  that  even 
they  are  polluted  and  loathsome."  The  Per- 
suasives ends,  naturally,  with  a  realistic  de- 

» Alice  Morse  Earle :  Child  Life  in  Colonial  Days 
(New  York,   1899),   page   236. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  VIEW  OP  CHILDHOOD  53 


scription  of  the  torments  of  literal  hell  fire. 
In  song,  if  anywhere,  the  heart  of  Jesus 
should  find  expression,  yet  in  a  collection  of 
"Hymns  for  Sunday  Schools,  Youth  and 
Children"^  published  as  late  as  1852,  the  child 
is  made  to  sing  from  the  standpoint  of  human 
ruin  and  fear.  Compare  the  following  child's 
hymn,  for  example,  with  the  words  of  Jesus 
concerning  childhood : 

"There  is  beyond  the  sky 

A  heaven   of  joy   and   love ; 
And  holy  children,  when  they  die. 

Go   to   that   world  above. 

"There  is  a  dreadful  hell. 

And  everlasting  pains  : 
There  sinners  must  with  devils  dwell, 

In  darkness,   fire,   and  chains. 

"Can  such  a  child  as  I 

Escape  this  awful  end? 
And  may  I  hope,  whene'er  I  die, 

I  shall  to  heaven  ascend? 

"Then   will   I    read   and   pray. 

While   I  have   life  and   breath  ; 
Lest  I  should  be  cut  off  to-day. 

And  sent  t'  eternal  death." 

33.  The   Doctrinal        The  difficulty  for  educa- 

Difficulty    has  i--         4--u    4.  4.      c   j.i„ 

been   Overcome.         tion  that   grows   out  of  the 

doctrine  of  depravity  is 
practically  overcome  in  some  churches  through 
the  countervailing  doctrine  of  baptismal  re- 
generation. This  provides  for  spiritual  life  in 
all  baptised  infants  and  makes  genuine  Chris- 

'  New  York,  Carlton  &  Phillips,  1852.  I  have  made 
further  citations  from  this  interesting  collection  in  The 
Religion  of  a  Mature  Mind  (Chicago.  1902),  pages 
314  f. 


54       EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

tian  nurture  possible.  In  other  churches  the 
difficulty  had  to  be  met  by  a  new  adjustment 
of  the  notions  of  sin  and  grace,  and  this  ad- 
justment has  actually  been  made.  We  owe  it, 
in  large  measure,  to  Horace  Bushnell  who, 
just  before  the  publication  of  the  hymn  just 
quoted,  issued  his  book  on  Christian  Nurture 
(1847).  He  maintained  that  a  positive  re- 
ligious life  does  not  -need  to  wait  for  the  crisis 
of  conversion,  but  that,  under  the  pervasive 
influence  of  the  Christian  family,  "the  child 
should  grow  up  a  Christian,  and  never  know 
himself  as  being  otherwise."  To  the  objec- 
tion that  this  theory  ignores  the  ehild's  de- 
pravity and  the  necessity  for  regtenefation, 
Bushnell  replied  in  substance  that  Wherever 
sin  can  abound  there  grace  can  much  more 
abound.  That  is,  he  overcame  the  difficulty, 
not  by  denying  depravity,  but  by  exalting 
the  grace  of  God.  The  unquestionably  good 
qualties  shown  by  little  children  he  inter- 
preted as  signs  of  the  divine  in-working. 
With  this  in-working  parents  and  teachers 
are  to  co-operate  so  that  development  of  the 
divinely  implanted  germ  may  be  continuous. 
A  similar  position  was  taken  a  little  later 
by  F.  G.  Hibbard,  who  approached  the  prob- 
lem from  Arminian  rather  than  Puritan  pre- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  VIEW  OF  CHILDHOOD  55 

suppositions.^  He  maintained  that  children 
— all  children — are  in  a  state  of  favor 
with  God,  who  imparts  to  them  a  genuine 
spiritual  quickening  or  principle  of  life. 
This  view  he  supports  at  length  from  Scrip- 
ture and  from  the  current  belief  of  his 
own  communion  that  all  chidren  who 
die  in  infancy  are  saved.  If  dying  infants 
are  saved,  it  must  be  through  divine  grace, 
but  why  should  such  grace  be  given  to  those 
who  die,  but  withheld  from  those  who  need  it 
for  living?  This  view  requires  a  change  in 
the  ordinary  notion  of  conversion,  for  now 
the  real  question  becomes — not,  Will  this 
child  ^er  be  converted  to  God  ?  but— Will  he 
ever  be  converted  away  from  God  ?  One  can- 
not become  a  member  of  the  kingdom  of  sin 
except  through  one's  own  evil  choice  to  sur- 
render one's  heavenly  citizenship. 

Through  such  writings  and  other  influences 
there  has  come  to  prevail  somewhat  generally 
the  view  that  the  Holy  Spirit  is  continually 
present  in  the  heart  of  man  from  the  begin- 
ning of  consciousness,  and  that  thus  a  genuine 
spiritual  life  is  imparted,  in  germinal  form,  to 

'  F.  G.  Hlbbard :  The  Religion  of  Childhood ;  or. 
Children  In  their  Relation  to  Native  Depravity,  to  the 
Atonement,  to  the  Family,  and  to  the  Church  (Cincin- 
nati:    Poe  &  Hitchcock,  1866). 


56       EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

all  who  do  not  positively  refuse  to  accept  it. 
The  existence  of  evil  tendencies  is  not  thereby 
denied,  but  such  tendencies  are  believed  to 
find  a  continuous  corrective  in  divine  help  as 
far  as  this  is  not  rejected  or  neglected.  Neither 
is  the  need  of  individual  decision  lessened  un- 
der this  view,  for  normal  growth  takes  place 
only  through  co-operation  of  the  individual 
will  with  the  inner  divine  impulsion. 

34.  Good  and  Evil  This  change  in  the  doc- 
Impulses   in  ^    .       ,  •    ,        p        ■  1 

Children.  trmal    pomt    01    View    has 

been  accompanied  by  more 
thorough  observation  of  the  actual  impulses 
of  children.  The  general  result  thereof  is  to 
confirm  the  universal  Christian  belief  that, 
in  some  sense,  the  natural  man  is  at  enmity 
with  the  spiritual  man.  At  the  same  time  it 
shows  that  the  natural  man  is,  in  some  sense, 
already  spiritual.  The  impulses  of  children 
are  partly  wholesome,  partly  unwholesome. 

It  is  clear  that  children's  "lies,"  which 
Avere  formerly  regarded  as  clear  evidence  of 
childhood  depravity,  have  been  misunder- 
stood. In  order  to  recognise  the  difference 
between  fact  and  fancy,  considerable  expe- 
rience is  necessary.  Even  grown  persons 
commonly  confuse  the  two.  How  much  more 
a   little    child,    who   has    everything   yet    to 


THE  CHRISTIAN  VIEW  OF  CHILDHOOD  57 

learn !  Moreover,  even  when  this  distinction 
is  realised,  the  child  may  not  understand 
the  moral  quality  of  wilful  deception.  He 
deceives  in  self-defense  just  as  he  raises  his 
arm  to  ward  off  a  blow.  He  has  still  to  learn 
the  social  effect  of  a  lie.  In  short,  when  we 
look  at  children's  falsehoods  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  child  himself  we  discover  no  such 
inbred  evil  as  was  once  assumed  to  be  there. 

Similarly  the  cruelty  that  is  attributed 
to  little  children  is  probably  not  cruelty  at 
all.  For  the  young  child  has  had  no  expe- 
rience that  enables  him  to  interpret  the 
signs  of  suffering  in  animals  or  in  men. 
He  does  not  delight  in  inflicting  pain  upon 
others,  for  he  does  not  realise  that  he  is 
inflicting  pain.  He  has,  however,  great  curi- 
osity to  see  what  will  happen,  and  he  de- 
lights to  feel  his  own  power  through  witness- 
ing the  effects  of  it  in  the  reactions  of  living 
things.  At  these  points,  then,  childhood's  im- 
pulses are  not  as  bad  as  they  have  been  repre- 
sented to  be. 

At  certain  other  points,  however,  the  young 
child  displays  impulses  that  are  little  above 
those  of  the  brutes.  Every  infant,  to  begin 
with,  is  an  almost  complete  egoist.  His  greed 
is  boundless ;  he  is  subject  to  unregulated  an- 


68       EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

ger  and  envy ;  he  resists  all  the  restraints  that 
are  essential  to  social  existence.  On  the  other 
hand,  germs  of  positive  good,  such  as  sym- 
pathy, kindness,  generosity,  affection,  spring 
up  very  early  and  in  advance  of  instruction 
and  moral  reflection.^ 

35.  How  Interpret        Thus  good  and  evil  im- 

these   Impulses?  ,  .       .  i  -u 

pulses  mix  in  every  child. 

Yet  not  "good  and  evil"  in  any  complete 
sense.  We  must,  in  fact,  make  still  another 
effort  to  see  the  facts  from  the  point  of  view 
of  childhood  itself.  Greed  and  anger  that 
would  be  reprehensible  in  us  may  bear  no 
such  character  in  an  infant.  "No  such  char- 
acter^'; that  is  precisely  it.  Character  is  a 
confirmed  habit  of  moral  choice,  and  this  the 
young  child  has  not  yet  attained.  It  would 
be  well,  therefore,  to  drop  both  adjectives, 
"evil"  and  "good,"  in  our  description  of 
childhood,  at  least  of  young  childhood,  or 
else  learn  to  give  them  an  unwonted  meaning. 
The  child  has  not  a  character  as  yet;  he  is 
merely  a  candidate  for  character.  He  is 
neither  good  nor  bad ;  he  is  merely  becoming 
one  or  the  other.  Some  of  his  impulses,  if 
they  grow  unchecked  and  unregulatedj  will 

»  On  this  whole  subject,   see  .Tames  Sully :     Studies  of 
Childhood   (New  York,  1900),  Chapter  VII. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  VIEW  OF  CHILDHOOD  59 

issue  in  bad  character;  others,  if  they  grow 
symmetrically,  will  result  in  good  character. 
That  is  the  whole  story. 

No,  not  quite  the  whole.  For  the  two  sets 
of  impulses  do  not  stand  on  quite  the  same 
footing.  One  set  relates  the  child  to  the 
lower  animals,  the  other  to  distinctly  human 
life.  The  law  of  evolution  has  for  the  first 
time  enabled  us  to  see  such  facts  in  their  true 
perspective.  The  unlovely  impulses  are  traces 
of  lower  orders  of  life  out  of  which  man  has 
evolved,  and  out  of  which  each  individual 
child  develops.  The  individual  begins  life  on 
the  animal  plane,  somewhat  as  the  human 
race  did,  and  he  has  to  attain  through  devel- 
opment the  distinctly  human  traits.  But  it 
is  natural  that  lie  should  attain  them}  The 
law  of  development  is  written  in  his  members. 
The  lower  tendencies  are,  indeed,  natural  in 
the  sense  that  they  spontaneously  appear  and 
actually  compete  with  the  higher;  but  in  a 
profounder  sense  of  "natural"  the  higher 
tendencies  are  the  natural  ones,  in  the  sense, 
namely,   that  they  represent  what  both  the 

'  Comenius.  one  of  the  earliest  founders  of  natural 
method,  says :  "It  is  more  natural  and,  through  the 
grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  easier  for  a  man  to  become 
wise,  honest,  and  righteous,  than  for  his  progress  to  be 
hindered  by  incidental  depravity." — .John  Amos  Comenius  : 
The  Great  Didactic,  Translated  by  W.  M.  Keatlnge  (Lon- 
don, 1896),  p.  203. 


60       EDUCATION   IN   RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

child  and  the  race  are  becoming.  In  order 
to  live  his  own  life  the  child  must  control 
and  regulate  his  impulses.  He  not  only- 
must  but  also  does  discriminate  between 
them,  and  generally  he  identifies  himself 
with  at  least  a  part  of  the  general  group 
of  impulses  that  we  call  wholesome.  Fin- 
ally, as  will  be  shown  in  the  proper  place, 
even  the  impulses  that  we  call  lower  are  ca- 
pable of  being  transformed  into  instruments 
for  the  realisation  of  the  higher  nature. 
Greed,  anger,  envy,  all  represent  spontaneous 
energy  that  can  be  directed  into  either  useful 
or  harmful  channels.  The  work  of  education, 
accordingly,  is  to  furnish  nutriment  for  the 
higher  tendencies  and  direction  for  the  lower. 

36.  A   Positive  We  are  now  ready  to  see 

Religious   Nature        ,  ,,  £      .      ^ 

is  Presupposed  ^ow  these  facts  bear  upon 
in  Religious  religious  education.     First, 

Education.  .i         i       •    i      i?  ■.- 

the  denial  ot  a  positive  re- 
ligious nature  to  man  through  the  doctrine  of 
total  depravity  tended  to  paralyse  religious 
education,  (a)  It  denied  that  there  was  any- 
thing to  develop.  (&)  It  judged  the  child 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  adult,  and  there- 
fore could  not  secure  any  natural  leverage  in 
the  child-mind,  (c)  It  employed  repression, 
instead    of    securing    expression,    with    the 


THE  CHRISTIAN  VIEW  OF  CHILDHOOD         61 

result  of  distorting  the  personality,  and 
often  of  producing:  opposition  to  religion. 
(d)  Taking  maturity  as  a  standard,  it  encour- 
aged religious  precocity,  which  is  clearly  un- 
wholesome, (e)  It  placed  undue  emphasis 
upon  conversion  experiences,  and  this  led,  on 
the  one  hand,  to  emotional  excesses,  and  on 
the  other  to  unnatural  (and  unspiritual) 
straining  after  subjective  states. 

Education  in  religion  must  start  out,  then, 
with  the  assumption  that  the  child  has  a  posi- 
tive religious  nature.  This  does  not  imply 
any  of  the  following  notions:  (a)  That  the 
child  is  'all  right'  as  he  is.  Even  a  mature 
Christian  is  not  '  all  right. '  Both  must  strug- 
gle to  maintain  and  to  increase  the  life  that 
is  within  them,  and  both  may  stumble  without 
forfeiting  that  life,  (h)  That  the  child  can 
grow  up  properly  by  a  merely  'natural'  pro- 
cess, without  divine  help.  Even  a  mature 
Christian  needs  daily  help,  (c)  That  the  life 
principle  in  the  child  can  take  care  of  itself 
without  our  help.  On  the  contrary,  just  be- 
cause a  positive  religious  nature  is  here,  defi- 
nite spiritual  food  must  be  supplied,  (d) 
That  the  child  has  any  definitely  conscious  re- 
ligious experience  or  sense  of  God.  He  is 
merelv  hecomiiig  conscious  of  spiritual  things. 


62        EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

To  speak  positively,  the  possession  of  a 
positive  religious  nature  implies  three  things: 
(a)  That  the  child  has  more  than  a  passive 
capacity  for  spiritual  things.  Just  as  animals 
go  forth  in  search  of  food,  so  a  positive  spirit- 
ual nature  goes  forth  spontaneously  in  search 
of  God.  (&)  That  nothing  short  of  union 
with  God  can  really  bring  a  human  being  to 
himself.  The  absurdity  of  a  miser's  life  is 
that  a  heart  that  hungers  for  God  feeds  on 
gold.  The  tragedy  in  the  life  of  every  volup- 
tuary is  that  a  few  drops  of  pleasure  are  of- 
fered to  slake  a  thirst  for  eternal  things.  In 
fact,  in  all  our  strivings  for  wealth,  pleasure, 
honor,  culture,  we  are  really  seeking  to  satisfy 
a  divine  craving.  The  real  meaning  of  every- 
thing with  which  we  have  to  do  is  God,  who  is 
in  all  and  through  all.  Failing  to  find  him,  we 
lose  even  our  self,  (c)  That  the  successive 
phases  in  the  growth  of  the  child  personality 
may  be,  and  normally  are,  so  many  phases  of 
a  growing  consciousness  of  the  divine  mean- 
ing of  life.  Both  the  idea  of  God  and  the 
religious  regulation  of  life  can  develop  from 
crude  beginnings,  just  as  the  song  of  a  lark 
comes  out  of  a  songless  egg.  In  Part  II  we 
shall  have  to  show  how  the  religious  demand 


THE  CHRISTIAN  VIEW  OF  CHILDHOOD  63 

of  the  child  utters  itself,  and  how  the  religious 
nature  grows. 

37.   Resulting  We  saw  in  the  last  chap- 

Conception    of  ^        ,  .J    .  -1  1       ,       ■ 

Christian  ter  how  it  IS  possible  to  m- 

Education.  clude  God,  nature,  and  man 

in  a  unitary  conception  of 
religious  education.  At  last,  after  a  long  dis- 
cussion, we  are  ready  to  include  Christ  in 
the  same  conception,  and  thus  rise  to  the 
thought  of  distinctively  Christian  education. 
The  view  of  God  in  his  world  that  was  sug- 
gested in  the  last  chapter  is  the  Christian 
view.  The  Christian  view  of  the  child  fits 
therein  perfectly.  In  the  spontaneous  life  of 
the  young  child,  all  free  from  calculation  and 
deliberate  choice,  we  see  the  human  life  of 
love  and  reverence  emerging  out  of  nature. 
Here  the  meaning  of  nature  begins  to  show 
itself ;  here  creation  rises  from  its  valleys  and 
plains  toward  the  mountain  summits.  God 
himself  makes  the  heart  hungry.  But  where 
shall  nutriment  adequate  to  this  creature's 
demands  be  found?  Here  is  appetite  of  a 
new  and  surprising  sort.  What  is  man?  He 
has  been  made  only  a  little  lower  than  God. 
He  has  been  crowned  with  glory  and  honor, 
and  all  things  have  been  put  under  his  feet. 
Yet  even  that  is  not  enough  for  him.   He  will 


64        EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

have  conscious  union  with  the  one  being  who 
is  higher  than  himself.  Now,  Christianity 
says  that  in  Christ  God  gives  himself  to  men 
as  their  light,  their  bread,  their  life.  Chil- 
dren, all  of  us,  apprehending  reality  first  of 
all  through  sensuous  media,  we  receive  God 
through  his  historic  manifestation  in  that 
which  we  can  see  with  our  eyes,  and  that 
which  we  can  handle  with  our  hands  of  the 
Word  of  Life.  In  Christ  God  responds  to  our 
hunger.  Feeding  upon  him  we  grow  in  like- 
ness to  God ;  that  is,  we  develop,  we  are  edu- 
cated. Christian  education  consists,  then,  in 
so  presenting  Christ  to  immature  souls  that 
they  shall  be  by  him  enlightened,  inspired, 
and  fed  according  to  their  gradually  increas- 
ing capacity,  and  thus  made  to  grow  continu- 
ously within  the  courts  of  the  Lord's  house. 


APPENDIX  TO  CHAPTER  IV 

EDUCATION,    DEPRAVITY,    AND    THE    BIRTH    FROM 
ABOVE 

I  believe  that  one  of  the  most  serious  ob- 
stacles to  the  proper  training  of  children  is  to 
be  found  in  the  inertia  of  outgrown  or  mis- 
understood theological  conceptions.  One  of 
the  most  misunderstood  of  these  conceptions 
is  that  of  the  "new  birth"  as  it  is  related  to 
the  normal  development  of  the  religious  con- 
sciousness. Education  and  regeneration  have 
been  habitually  contrasted  with  each  other,  as 
though  Jesus,  in  his  declaration  to  Nicodemus, 
had  in  mind  suddenness  or  any  other  tem- 
poral conception  rather  than  the  qualitative 
unlikeness  of  two  kinds  of  life  and  the  divine 
source  of  one  of  them.  It  would  be  well  to 
go  back  to  the  primary  meaning  of  the  scrip- 
tural words  by  speaking  of  the  "birth  from 
above"  rather  than  the  "new"  birth.  The 
life  from  above  is  a  kind  of  life,  and  its  source 
is  God.  There  is  here  no  antithesis  to  educa- 
tion or  development.  A  mature  Christian  is 
expected  to  grow  in  the  divine  life;  why  may 
not  a  child  grow  in  it  also  ?    Why  may  not  the 


66       EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 


life  be  there  from  the  start  ?  Education  does 
not  bestow  it  upon  the  child,  or  enable  him 
to  create  it  for  himself ;  it  merely  helps  him, 
as  the  usual  means  of  grace  help  adult  Chris- 
tians, to  work  out  what  God  works  within.  A 
child  who  thus  grows  up  has  the  life  from 
above  as  truly  as  a  converted  rebel.  Receiv- 
ing as  he  goes  along  ' '  the  true  light,  even  the 
light  that  lighteth  every  man  as  he  cometh 
into  the  world,"  he  has  a  right  to  be  called  a 
child  of  God.  {Cf.  George  A.  Coe:  The  Re- 
ligion of  a  Mature  Mind  (Chicago,  1902), 
Chapter  VII:  "The  Right  to  be  Called  a 
Child  of  God"). 

That  the  present  theological  standpoint 
of  leading  Christian  denominations  fur- 
nishes, in  nearly  every  case,  an  adequate 
theoretical  basis  for  Christian  education  is 
reasonably  clear  from  a  survey  of  our  pres- 
ent situation.  The  Presbyterian  General 
Assembly  has  declared  that  all  children  who 
die  in  infancy  are  saved.  Here  it  is  proper  to 
apply  the  remark  of  Hibbard  already  referred 
to  (see  page  54).  Cf.  Henry  VanDyke:  God 
and  Little  Children  (New  York,  1890).  A 
well  known  Presbyterian  clergyman,  in  re- 
sponse to  a  question,  writes  to  me  as  follows: 
"The  Presbyterian  doctrine  concerning  the 


EDUCATION  AND  THE   BIRTH    FROM   ABOVE  67 

relation  of  young  children  to  God  is  this: 
That  by  original  nature,  in  their  first  state, 
they  are  in  a  state  of  deficiency,  needing  the 
touch  of  divine  grace  with  regenerative  power 
before  they  are  made  the  subjects  of  salva- 
tion. .  .  This  touch  of  divine  grace  or 
regenerative  presence  in  the  child  life  may 
come  at  birth,  or,  as  I  believe  and  I  think 
others  do,  may  come  before  birth  or  quickly 
after.  It  is  a  point,  of  course,  upon  which 
there  can  be  no  knowledge,  but  the  point  is 
that  the  child  in  its  infant  days  becomes  the 
subject  of  regeneration,  and  is  never  really 
alienated  from  God,  but  from  birth  is  his 
child  and  may  and  should  grow  up  into  a 
simple,  normal,  filial  relation."  Accordingly, 
' '  in  the  belief  of  our  church  young  people  are 
born  members  of  the  church." 

A  representative  Congregationalist  makes  a 
similar  answer.  After  making  allowance  for 
differences  between  congregations,  he  says: 
"The  general  faith  is  that  all  young  children 
are,  even  though  unconsciously,  the  children 
of  God,  and  in  the  normal  development  of  the 
child's  soul  its  relation  changes  only  as  the 
relation  of  the  child  changes  to  the  external 
world." 

The  Methodist  position,  which  is  based  upon 


68       KDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

a  tendency  to  magnify  the  free  grace  of  God, 
is  the  same.  The  emphasis  which  the  Wes- 
leyan  movement  has  always  placed  upon  con- 
version has  undoubtedly  brought  about  a 
somewhat  general  expectation  that  even  chil- 
dren who  have  enjoyed  Christian  training 
will  pass  through  a  crisis  of  repentance  and 
conversion.  Yet  a  long  succession  of  the  lead- 
ing authorities  of  Wesleyanism,  of  whom 
Hibbard  is  an  example,  has  taken  the  position 
that  a  child  may  grow  to  maturity  entirely 
within  the  kingdom  of  God.  John  Wesley, 
Fletcher,  Watson,  Adam  Clarke,  Whedon, 
have  all  asserted  it.  See  article  on  "Wesley 
and  other  Methodist  Fathers  on  Childhood 
Religion,"  by  C.  W.  Kishell  in  Methodist  Re- 
view, September-October,  1902;  also  R.  J. 
Cooke:  Christianity  and  Childhood  (New 
York,  1891),  and  article  by  J.  A.  Story  on 
"The  Religion  of  Childhood"  in  Methodist 
Review,  July- August,  1900. 

Of  thirty-four  candidates  for  the  ministry 
of  the  English  Wesleyan  church  who  were  re- 
cently called  upon  to  relate  their  religious 
experience,  considerably  less  than  half,  ac- 
cording to  a  report  in  the  Methodist  Recorder 
for  August  6,  1903,  mentioned  any  definite 
time  or  place  of  conversion,  while  many  dis- 


EDUCATION   AND   THE    BIRTH    FROM   ABOVE  69 

tinctly  testified  that  their  religious  life  had 
been  a  gradual  growth  from  childhood. 

A  representative  Baptist  clergyman  says  on 
the  same  point:  "It  is  the  general  belief  that 
young  children  are  God's  children,  and  will 
be  saved  if  they  die  in  that  early  stage ;  that 
they  inherit  evil  tendencies  which  are  sure  to 
manifest  themselves  as  they  develop,  and  these 
tendencies,  consented  to  and  intensified  by  the 
personal  will,  are  so  radical  and  strong  that 
they  call  for  what  the  Scripture  designates 
"regeneration,"  a  spiritual  crisis  wrought  by 
the  Spirit  of  God.  This  crisis  may  be  accord- 
ing to  age,  temperament  and  previous  moral 
conduct,  sudden  and  marked  or  almost  imper- 
ceptible, like  the  dawn  of  day.  In  a  normal 
life  there  comes  a  time  of  decision,  when  the 
soul  yields  to  God  or  pulls  away;  the  latter 
act  makes  the  accountable  child  a  wayward 
child,  a  sinner  condemned. ' ' 


J 


CHAPTER  V 

•HE    CHARACTERISTICS    OF    MODERN   EDUCATION 

38.  Three  Con-  The     characteristics     of 

trasts  between  ,  t         ^  •  i 

Mediaeval  and  modern   education   may   be 

Modern  studied  from  either  of  two 

Education.  .    .         t,      •  -nr 

points  or  view.  We  may 
observe  the  school  itself— the  teaching  force, 
the  controlling  bodies,  the  material  of  instruc- 
tion, the  relation  of  the  curriculum  to  life — or 
we  may  note  the  movement  of  educational 
theory  in  the  works  of  writers  on  this  subject. 
In  the  present  section  the  former  method  will 
be  used.  If  we  compare  medigeval  with 
modern  schools,  three  contrasts  will  strike  us 
at  once.  First,  mediaeval  teachers  were  prac- 
tically all  clergymen  or  other  church  func- 
tionaries, while  the  teaching  force  of  modern 
schools  is  drawn  chiefly  from  the  laity.  Sec- 
ond, the  control  of  mediseval  schools  was  vest- 
ed in  the  church,  while  that  of  modern  schools 
is  vested  chiefly  in  the  state.  Third,  the  point 
of  view  of  the  school  has  changed  from  that 
of  preparation  for  personal  salvation  through 
believing  dogmas,  authoritatively  handed 
down  by  the  church  to  that  of  preparation 


CHARACTERISTICS   OF  MODERN  EDUCATION      71 

for  the  common  life,  particularly  the  life  of 
society,  by  the  acquisition  of  so-called  secular 
knowledge. 

At  first  sight  the  contrast  here  seems  to  be 
very  sharp.  The  mediaeval  school  had  in  view 
the  eternal  salvation  of  the  soul;  the  modern 
school,  the  living  of  our  temporal  life.  The 
medieval  school  was  "scholastic,"  the  mod- 
ern is  "scientific."  Scholasticism  means  the 
carrying  on  of  all  studies,  all  intellectual 
work,  under  the  assumption  that  beliefs  for- 
mulated by  the  church  have  final  authority, 
so  that  they  may  not  be  inquired  into  in  the 
sense  of  being  tested.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
scientific  spirit  is  that  of  free  inquiry.  It 
recognises  no  authority  for  the  inquiring  mind 
except  that  of  fact  and  of  reasoned  truth.  It 
assumes  the  right  to  test  all  tilings  and  hold 
fast  only  that  which  stands  the  test.  Its  chief 
concern  is  not  to  maintain  what  is  already 
accepted  as  true,  but  rather  to  extend  the 
bounds  of  certain  knowledge.  The  function 
of  discovering  new  knowledge  pertains,  of 
course,  to  no  educational  institution  below 
the  university,  but  the  spirit  of  science  per- 
meates modern  schools  of  all  grades.^ 

1  The  term  science  is  used  in  English  in  two  or  more 
senses.  In  the  narrower  sense  It  means  the  natural  and 
physical   sciences ;    in   the   broader  sense  it  signities   all 


t2       EDUCATION   IN    RHLIGION   AND   MORALS 

39.  Apparent  These      three      contrasts 

Conflict  between  ,  i.    .    •  ^  i       ^^i 

iviodern  show  what  IS  meant  by  the 

Education  and  statement  that  the  modern 

'^      '  school  is  "secular,"   while 

the  mediteval  school  was  religious.  At  first 
sight,  the  "secularisation"  of  the  schools  ap- 
pears to  involve  a  conflict  with  religion.  For, 
while  religion  demands  submission,  the  spirit 
of  modern  education  encourages  individual 
judgment.  The  church  asserts  that  this  or 
that  is  true,  basing  its  assertion  upon  divine 
revelation;  the  spirit  of  the  school  authorises 
each  man  to  inquire  for  himself  whether  it 
is  true  or  not.  Religion  talks  of  unseen  reali- 
ties, while  modern  education  turns  attention 
more  and  more  to  things  that  can  be  seen  and 
handled.  Religion  makes  God  the  first  and 
supreme  interest,  but  the  "secular"  school 
avoids  speaking  of  God,  and  leaves  to  outside 
or  incidental  agencies  the  chief,  and  possibly 
the  only,  development  that  the  child's  reli- 
gious nature  receives. 

knowledge  that  is  based  upon  the  scientific  method,  inz., 
obs»rvatioB  and  analysis.  "The  scientific  spirit"  has 
reference  solely  to  the  method  of  study,  that  Is,  the 
method  which  bases  conclusions  on  observed  facts  and 
just  reasonings  therefrom  rather  than  npon  authority, 
speculation,  argument,  etc.  This  commonplace  remark 
is  made  here  because  popular  religious  discussions  fre- 
quently use  the  terms  science  and  scientific  aa  though 
they  referred  simply  to  the  habitual  points  of  view  or 
characteristic  methods  of  the  physical  and  natural 
sciences. 


CHARACTERISTICS   OF  MODERN  EDUCATION     73 

It  is  therefore  of  the  highest  importance 
to  inquire  how  much  of  real  conflict  there 
is  here.  Is  the  modern  school  either  a  rival 
or  an  opponent  of  religion  ?  In  principle, 
as  we  shall  see,  it  is  not,  but  in  its 
practical  working  at  some  times  and  in 
some  places  it  may  and  probably  does  hinder 
religion.  In  fact,  purely  secular  education 
is  a  reaction  from  the  one-sidedness  of 
the  medieval  schools,  and  as  a  reaction  it 
is  itself  one-sided.  There  may  be  adequate 
reason  why  state  schools  should  abstain  from 
positive  religious  instruction,  but  in  that  case 
state  schools  cannot  be  regarded  as  more  than 
a  part  of  a  proper  educational  system.  Re- 
ligious euuccti-Oii  Lherc  must  be,  either  within 
or  without  the  state  schools.  If  modern  edu- 
cation has  progressed  faster  in  its  secular  than 
in  its  religious  phases,  the  practical  conclusion 
is  not  that  what  we  have  attained  is  false,  but 
only  that  it  is  partial,  and  that  the  friends 
of  religion  have  slept  when  they  should  have 
been  at  work.  It  is  certainly  true  that  the 
mediaeval  church  school  and  the  modern  secu- 
lar school  are  opposed  to  each  other,  and  if 
these  two  were  our  only  alternatives,  our  pres- 
ent situation  would  be  alarming.  But  there 
is  a  third  alternative,  and  that  is  for  religious 


74        EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

education  itself  to  become  modern  and  hence 
capable  of  taking  its  place  alongside  of  and 
possibly  also  within  the  typical  modern  school. 
The  practical  measures  for  accomplishing  this 
end  will  engage  attention  at  a  later  point  in 
our  discussion.  We  must  first  of  all  make 
sure  that  there  is  no  fundamental  opposition 
of  principle  between  religion  and  modern  ed- 
ucation, as,  for  instance,  in  respect  to  author- 
ity. 

40.  The  Necessity        The  problem  of  authority 

of  Authority  in  i.       ^.v.  j.  ^     j-\. 

Education.  goes    to    the    roots    of    the 

whole  idea  of  education. 
We  simply  cannot  educate  without  teaching 
pupils  to  think  for  themselves.  It  is  a  founda- 
tion stone  of  the  theory  of  teaching  that  the 
personality  develops  from  within  by  the  free 
expression  of  what  is  there,  not  by  being  com- 
pressed into  a  mold,  or  by  receiving  addi- 
tions from  without.  ^Tiat  place  is  left,  then, 
for  authority  ?  It  is  said  that  speculative  an- 
archists, who  deny  altogether  the  right  of 
men  to  govern  men,  sometimes  carry  their 
theory  to  the  point  of  giving  up  all  positive 
control  of  their  own  children.  The  theory  is 
that  the  child  will  find  out  what  is  best  for 
him  through  his  own  experience.^     Whether 

1  Cf.  article  on   "Some   Socialist  and   Anarchist  Views 


CHARACTERISTICS   OF  MODERN  EDUCATION       75 

such  parents  restrain  the  propensity  of  baby 
to  put  everything  into  his  mouth  is  not  re- 
lated, but  it  is  certain  that  a  child  could  not 
live  without  restraint.  It  is  equally  certain 
that  education  consists  in  exercising  control 
of  some  sort.  Even  if  it  does  not  use  external 
compulsion,  it  at  least  arranges  the  conditions 
so  as  to  secure  reactions  of  one  kind  rather 
than  another,  and  so  limits  the  range  of  pos- 
sible experience.  It  makes  the  child  some- 
thing that  he  would  not  become  if  he  were 
left  to  himself.  It  chooses  for  him  before  he 
is  able  to  choose  for  himself.  We  do  not  wait 
for  the  child  to  decide  for  himself  whether 
he  will  be  clean,  whether  he  will  learn  to  read, 
whether  he  will  become  acquainted  with 
Shakespeare,  with  history,  and  with  science. 
In  both  the  family  and  the  school,  society  gen- 
uinely predetermines  the  future  of  its  new 
members.  Authority,  consequently,  lies  at 
the  very  basis  of  education  both  secular  and 
religious. 

41.  Genera!  What    is    the    nature    of 

Authority.  this   authority?     Is   it   the 

arbitrary  will  of  any  per- 
son or  group  of  persons?    If  it  were  that,  it 

of  Education"  in  the  Educational  Review,  Volume  XV, 
page  1. 


76       EDUCATION   IN   RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

would  be  mere  strength  asserting  itself  against 
weakness.  Parent  and  teacher  are  not  the 
source  of  authority,  but  rather  instruments 
of  it.  They  themselves  can  be  true  educators 
only  as  they  submit  to  the  same  authority 
that  they  exercise  toward  the  child.  Educa- 
tion, that  is,  has  authority  simply  to  make  ef- 
fective in  child-development  the  laws  and 
ideals  of  life  that  the  adult  finds  binding  upon 
himself.  This  is  as  true  of  the  state  as  it  is 
of  the  citizen.  The  state  is  simply  an  ar- 
rangement whereby  man  makes  effective  the 
obligations  and  ideals  which  he  recognises  as 
binding.  It  is  a  part  of  his  submission  to  au- 
thority. In  a  word,  it  is  impossible  for  any 
individual  to  live  to  himself,  and  for  any 
human  organization  to  live  to  itself.  Child 
and  adult  alike  live  in  and  through  society, 
and  society  implies  authority.  But  society 
also  is  under  the  authority  of  some  ideal  of 
social  existence  which  leads  the  way  of  prog- 
ress. An  arbitrary  state  is  just  as  irrational 
as  an  arbitrary  individual.  It  is  un-human, 
as  well  as  inhuman.  The  powers  that  be  are 
all  ordained  as  administrators  of  an  authority 
which  they  do  not  originate.  Religion  says 
that  they  are  ordained  of  God,  and  ethics  can- 
not say  less  than  that  they  are  ordained  by 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  MODERN  EDUCATION   77 

the  moral  ideal.  The  authority  that  eduea- 
tion  assumes  witli  respect  to  the  child,  then, 
is  identical  with  the  authority  of  morals  and 
of  religion. 

42.  Authority  in  In    point    of    authorita- 

Education.  tiveness,  then,  religious  ed- 

ucation stands  upon  the 
same  level  as  education  in  general  and,  in- 
deed, human  life  in  general.  The  real  dis- 
pute, accordingly,  is  not  between  religion  and 
modern  education,  but  between  two  concep- 
tions of  religious  authority.  All  education 
employs  authority.  Nevertheless,  modern  ed- 
ucation humbles  itself  before  the  little  child 
by  submitting  the  whole  of  civilisation  to  the 
test  of  a  fresh  experience.  How  far  the  new 
personality  can  express  itself  in  what  we  re- 
gard as  the  true  and  the  good,  and  how  far  it 
must  reject  and  revise  and  supplement  what 
we  offer,  is  always  an  open  question.  Now, 
the  scholastic  notion  of  authority  declares 
that  with  respect  to  a  certain  set  of  proposi- 
tions called  dogmas  this  question  is  not  open. 
Everywhere  else  the  general  theory  of  educa- 
tion is  accepted  as  true,  but  here  the  principle 
of  development  from  within  is  no  longer 
tmsted.  An  external  standard  is  immovably 
fixed,  and  if  any  individual  finds  that  the  life 


78       EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

within  him— his  conscience,  his  reason,  his 
spiritual  aspirations— cannot  express  itself  in 
the  forms  of  the  dogma,  scholastic  authority 
must  and  does  declare  that  this  is  a  sign  of  a 
bad  will.  The  scholastic  notion  of  authority 
is  not  only  opposed  to  the  secular  school ;  it  is 
in  irreconcilable  conflict  with  modern  educa- 
tion itself. 

But  there  is  another  conception  of  spiritual 
authority  which  is  perfectly  harmonious  with 
the  educational  principle  of  free  self-expres- 
sion. It  holds  that  the  immanent  God  utters 
himself  in  the  mind  of  everj^one  of  us  in  the 
form  of  what  we  call  our  higher  self.  Cer- 
tainly there  is  that  in  the  self  which  com- 
mands, judges,  approves  and  rebukes  all  that 
is  merely  individual  to  me.  My  highest  des- 
tiny can  be  nothing  less  or  more  than  to  be- 
come, in  the  highest  possible  degree,  this  bet- 
ter self  which  is  germinal,  yet  commanding, 
in  my  consciousness.  Here  is  divine  author- 
ity, but  it  works  within  the  indi\ndual  as  an 
impulse,  not  without  him  as  compulsion.  But 
there  is  also  an  external  aspect  to  authority. 
For  the  best  impulse  does  not  grow  without 
food ;  the  mind  does  nothing  and  knows  noth- 
ing of  itself  without  the  concurrence  of  an  ob- 
ject which  stimulates  it  to  activity.    We  find 


CHARACTERISTICS   OF  MODERN  EDUCATION      79 

even  ourselves  only  through  our  objective  ex- 
periences. Hence  anything  in  our  present 
civilisation  or  in  history  that  actually  does 
call  out  our  higher  nature  and  enable  it  to  be- 
come dominant  in  us  acquires  thereby  author- 
ity over  us.  Yet  such  authority  is  never 
merely  external ;  it  exists  as  authority  for  us 
only  when  it  actually  becomes  the  self-expres- 
sion of  our  higher  nature.^ 

Authority  in  this  sense  is  not  only  compati- 
ble with  modern  education ;  it  is  essential 
thereto.  Education  in  its  totality  is  nothing 
more  than  the  process  whereby  ideal  impulse 
and  food  for  it,  or  inner  and  outer  authority, 
come  most  effectively  together.  From  this 
point  of  view  the  question  as  to  the  authority 
of  religion  in  education  resolves  itself  into 
these  two  question :  Is  there  a  natural  reli- 
gious impulse,  and  is  there  in  our  civilisation 
anything  that  can  satisfy  it?- 

1  This  Is  simply  a  general  statement  of  the  principle 
Involved  in  the  common  Christian  belief  that  the  spirit- 
ual content  of  the  Scriptures  cannot  be  discovered  by 
us  without  the  concurrent  help  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  That 
is,  external  authority  is  not  actual  authority  as  long  as 
it  stands  alone.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  "equally  true 
that  internal  authority  attains  a  definite  character  for 
us  only  through  contact  with  external  fact  which  in 
some  measure  corresponds  to   it. 

*  A  fuller  exposition  of  this  conception  of  authority  in 
religion  is  contained  in  George  A.  Coe :  The  Religion  of 
a  Mature  Mind  (Chicago,  1902),  Chapter  III — "Author- 
ity in  Religion."  See  also  L.  Laberthonniere  :  The  Ideal 
Teacher  :  or.  The  Catholic  Notion  of  Authority  in  Educa- 
tion (Cathedral  Library  Association,  534-536  Amsterdam 


80       EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

43.  The  Great  Other    characteristics    of 

Educational  ^  7         .•  -n 

Reformers.  modern  education  Mall  ap- 

pear from  a  survey  of  the 
developfiient  of  educational  theory.  The 
names  of  several  educational  reformers  have 
direct  significance  for  the  problems  of  reli- 
gious education  with  which  we  are  here  con- 
cerned. A  mere  mention  of  them  will  intro- 
duce us  to  our  ovv^n  problems,  and  it  may  stim- 
ulate some  readers  to  secure  a  personal  ac- 
quaintance with  some  of  the  classical  litera- 
ture of  education.^  Since  the  beginning  of 
the  Reformation  a  remarkable  transformation 
has  taken  place.  Making  no  effort  to  trace  the 
historic  continuity  of  its  various  features,  we 
may  note,  first,  that  Luther,  applying  the 
Reformation  principle  of  the  rights  of  the  in- 
dividual, demanded  compulsory  education  of 
a  liberal  kind  for  all  children.  The  Moravian, 
Comenius  (1502-1571;  the  Great  Didactic, 
London,  1896),  undertook  to  organise  a  com- 
plete  course  of  instruction  based  upon  the 

Avenue,  New  York  City),  and  J.  L.  Hughes:  Froebel's 
Educational  Laws  for  all  Teachers  (New  York,  1899), 
pages  24-28. 

1  Some  of  the  most  available  secondary  sources  of  in- 
formation on  this  topic  are  as  follows  :  Thomas  David- 
eon  :  History  of  Education  (New  York,  1901) — a  his- 
tory of  both  education  and  educational  theories ;  R.  H. 
Quick:  Educational  Reformers  (New  York,  1890); 
.T.  P.  Munroe:  The  Educational  Ideal  (Boston,  1896); 
J.  G.   Compayre  :     History  of  Pedagogy    (Boston,  1896). 


CHARACTERISTICS   OF  MODERN  EDUCATION      81 

principle  of  drawing  out  the  faculties  in  the 
natural  order  of  their  development,  particu- 
larly by  means  of  facts  rather  than  books.  In 
France  Rousseau  (1712-1778;  Emile,  New 
York,  1895),  believing  that  the  evils  of  life 
are  due  chiefly  to  the  artificiality  of  civilisa- 
tion, demands  a  return  to  nature.  This  in- 
cludes natural  education,  that  is,  as  Rousseau 
believes,  development  through  the  exercise  of 
spontaneous  impulses,  both  physical  and 
mental.  Rousseau  carries  this  idea  to  mon- 
strous extremes,  but  the  idea  itself,  in  one 
form  or  another,  has  dominated  the  whole 
modern  movement.  Pestalozzi  (1746-1827; 
Leonard  and  Gertrude,  Boston,  1895),  a 
Swiss,  a  man  of  prophetic  gleams  but  poor 
organising  ability,  makes  the  school  an  ex- 
pression of  love  for  men,  and  for  all  men. 
The  end  thereof  is  not  mere  learning,  but  also 
a  trained  character  and  wholesome  affections. 
The  method,  based  upon  Rousseau,  is  chiefly 
that  of  familiarising  the  child  with  things 
rather  than  with  words.  In  Germany  Herbart 
(1776-1841;  Science  of  Education,  Boston, 
1896)  defines  the  end  of  education  as  moral 
life;  shows  how  interest  is  the  true  spring 
of  study,  and  reveals  the  true  nature  of  men- 
tal  acquisition   as    the    assimilation   of   new 


82       EDUCATION    IN   RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

ideas  by  means  of  those  already  possessed. 
Froebel  (1783-1852;  The  Education  of  Man, 
New  York,  1888),  another  German,  founds 
the  kindergarten  on  the  principles  of  Pesta- 
lozzi,  which  he  also  carries  forward.  Free  de- 
velopment is  now  the  central  idea.  Joyous 
activity  takes  the  place  of  repression  and  ex- 
ternal imposition.  Hence  play  and  manual 
occupations  receive  recognition  as  educational 
processes  of  the  highest  importance. 

44.  Summary  of  The     educational     move- 

Movement  "in  ment  thus  barely  suggested 

Education.  ^^s  embedded  in  the  politi- 

cal movement  that  has  given 
us  the  modern  free  state,  and  also  in  the  intel- 
lectual movement  that  has  given  us  modern 
science.  The  same  aspiration  that  gave  the 
franchise  to  the  common  people  has  endeav- 
ored to  liberate  the  child  also  from  unnatural 
burdens.  The  same  intellectual  awakening 
that  has  given  us  our  unprecedented  knowl- 
edge of  nature  has  also  destroyed  the  educa- 
tional monopoly  that  was  once  exercised  by 
books,  language,  and  the  formal  part  of  "po- 
lite learning. ' '  Bearing  these  general  histori- 
cal tendencies  in  mind,  we  shall  perhaps 
gather  something  of  the  profound  significance 
of   the    following   summary    of   the   modern 


CHARACTERISTICS    OP   MODERN    ERUCATION     S3 

movement  in  education.     (1)    From  being  an 
exclusively  ecclesiastical  affair,  education  has 
become  also  an  affair  of  the  state.     (2)     It 
has    ceased   to   be    the   privilege   of    certain 
classes  (clergy  and  nobility),  and  has  become 
a  right  of  all  the  people.     (3)     Its  scope  has 
widened  from  mere  instruction  to  the  training 
of  the  whole  person— the  will,  the  feelings, 
and    the    body,    as    well    as    the    intellect. 
(4)  Instruction  itself  has  broadened  so  as  to 
include  the  study  of  nature  and  of  man  along- 
side the   study  of   merely  literary   and   ab- 
stractly logical  subjects.     (5)     The  material 
employed  has  changed  more  and  more  from 
mere  symbols,  such  as  books,  formula,  etc., 
toward  things  which  the  child  can  observe  for 
himself.     (6)       The  teacher's  point  of  view 
has  changed  from  that  of  the  subject  as  he 
himself,  a  mature  person,  thinks  it  to  that  of 
the     child     and    his     natural,     spontaneous 
methods  of  apprehension.     (7)  The  notion  of 
the  process  has  changed  from  that  of  bestow- 
ing something  upon  a  passive  child  to  that 
of  providing  means  whereby  the  child  may 
actively  and  freely  express  himself.    The  child 
is  to  develop  from  within  by  his  own  activity. 
(8)   Finally,  in  these  later  days,  as  we  saw  in 
the  first  chapter,  education  has  passed  beyond 


84       EDUCATION    IiN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

the  individualism  of  both  the  mediseval  and 
the  Reformation  period,  and  is  now  recog- 
nised as  a  social  process  in  aim  as  well  as  in 
origin. 

In  the  next  chapter  we  shall  ask  what  bear- 
ing certain  of  these  views  have  upon  religion 
and  education  therein. 


CHAPTER  VI 

CONTRIBUTIONS    OF    MODERN   EDUCATION    TO 
RELIGION 

45.  Why  Modern  In  a  broad  sense   Chris- 

Education  has  ,.        -  ..v  n   ,, 

Neglected  the  tianity  IS  the  source  or  the 

Religious  Factor,  whole  movement  for  the  re- 
form of  education.  For 
modern  schools  are  an  offshoot  from  church 
schools,  and  parts  of  modern  educational  phil- 
osophy can  be  traced  back  to  medisEval  times. 
The  demand  for  popular  education  and  for 
natural  methods  grew  up  within  religion,  and 
several  of  the  great  prophets  of  the  modern 
reform — notably  Pestalozzi  ~  and  Froebel — 
have  looked  upon  it  as  distinctly  religious. 
Nevertheless,  education  became  independent. 
It  based  itself  upon  psychology  and  child- 
study,  not  upon  Bible,  church,  or  creed.  It 
has  built  up  a  set  of  principles  of  its  own 
without  stopping  to  ask  what  bearing  they 
may  have  upon  religion.  We  have  to  deal, 
accordingly,  with  two  apparently  unrelated 
theories,  the  religious  and  the  pedagogical, 
and  with  two  independent  practical  activities, 
those  of  the  church  and  those  of  the  school. 


86       EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

This  was,  perhaps,  inevitable.  For  religion, 
being  the  most  conservative  factor  of  civilisa- 
tion, has  been  relatively  slow  in  assuming  a 
final  attitude  toward  the  rapid  changes  of  the 
modern  world.  That  the  whole  of  education 
should  wait  for  official  religion  to  assimilate 
the  principles  of  modern  life  was  scarcely  to 
be  expected.  Church  and  state  became  sep- 
arated or  else  lost  the  close  union  of  former 
days;  modern  democracy  was  born  and  grew 
to  a  giant;  modern  science  gave  us  a  new 
world.  Here  principles  were  at  work  that  had 
to  be  incorporated  into  the  training  of  the 
young.  Progress  took  the  line  of  least  resist- 
ance. Leaving  theological  and  ecclesiastical 
disputes  to  adjust  themselves,  the  schools  took 
into  themselves  the  factors  of  life  upon  which 
there  was  least  dispute.  The  reform  occurred 
where  reform  was  most  practicable. 

46.  Can     Religion  At     last,     however,        this 

Principles  of  Unnatural  division  between 

Modern  religion      and      education, 

Education?  ,  ,  t       t       i     •  ^ 

church  and  school,  is  awak- 
ening a  discontent  that  promises  better  things. 
Protestants  and  Catholics  alike  are  beginning 
to  realise  that  what  still  remains  of  religious 
education  has  been  outstripped  by  the  secular 
schools.    Demand  is  now  made  not  only  for 


CONTRIBUTIONS  OF  MODERN  EDUCATION  87 

more  religious  education,  but  also  for  better, 
and  the  general  assumption  is  that  one  needed 
step  is  to  adopt  into  religious  training  the 
principles  of  teaching  that  are  recognised  in 
the  state  schools.  Some  persons  believe  that 
the  reform  of  religious  education  is  already 
going  too  fast  in  this  direction.  They  fear 
that  secularisation  of  religion  will  follow  the 
adoption  of  methods  that  characterise  secular 
schools.  Now,  religious  education  must  cer- 
tainly be  religious  in  point  of  process  as  well 
as  in  point  of  purpose.  No  real  advance  can 
be  made  by  grafting  into  religion  anything 
that  is  not  in  its  own  nature  religious.  What 
kind  of  union,  then,  is  this  that  is  proposed? 
Has  the  educational  reform  any  contributions 
whatever  to  make  to  religion?  The  answer  to 
this  question  can  be  found  only  by  analysis 
of  the  great  principles  underlying  modern  ed- 
ucation.   Let  us  undertake  such  analysis. 

47.  Universal  Universal    education,    to 

Education  is  a  ,       .  -.i      •  .•   n 

Christian  Idea.         begin  With,  IS  essentially  a 

Christian    idea.      For    its 

foundation  is  the  worth  of  man,  a  conception 

which    Jesus    has    emphasised    as    no    other 

teacher  has  done.    In  spite  of  the  perversion 

of  Christian  institutions  and  ideas  in  behalf 

of  oppression  in  many  forms,  original  and  es- 


S8       EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND  MORALS 

sential  Christianity  has  been  the  great  eman- 
cipator, the  great  protest  against  all  exploita- 
tion of  human  life.  Rich  and  poor,  learned 
and  unlearned,  master  and  servant,  king  and 
peasant,  become,  under  Christian  influences, 
simply  so  many  children  of  God  and  brothers 
one  of  another.  Jesus  teaches  that  the  hairs 
of  our  heads  are  all  numbered,  that  a  human 
life  is  of  more  value  than  the  whole  world, 
and  that  God  places  so  high  a  value  upon  us 
as  to  give  his  only  Son  for  our  salvation. 
Here  is  basis  broad  enough  for  democracy  and 
for  universal  education. 

48.  So,  also,  is  Modem  education  recog- 

Development  . 

from  Within;  nises  the  inner  liie  as  the  es- 

sential life  of  a  man.  It  pro- 
claims that  things  are  not  life,  and  that  noth- 
ing can  enlarge  us  that  does  not  become  a  part 
of  our  inner  being.  The  school  is  not  to  hang 
something  upon  the  child,  but  to  develop 
something  within  him.  Here,  surely,  is  sup- 
port for  spiritual  religion,  "Out  of  the 
heart,"  said  a  wise  man  of  ancient  times,  "are 
the  issues  of  life."  The  Great  Teacher  re- 
affirmed this  thought  again  aind  again.  Not 
what  comes  to  a  man  from  the  outside,  but 
what  comes  up  out  of  the  inner  being,  is  the 


CONTRIBUTIONS    OF    MODERN    EDUCATION     89 

decisive  fact  of  life.     At  this  point,   then, 
Christ  and  modern  pedagogy  are  at  one. 

49.  Likewise  "All-        Modern     education     not 
Development";  ^^^^Y    P^ts    emphasis     upon 

the  inner  life,  but  it  also 
conceives  that  life  broadly.  Life  is  more  than 
knowledge;  it  is  also  appreciation  of  what  is 
lovely  and  of  good  report ;  it  is  sympathy  with 
other  life ;  it  is  righteousness  of  purpose.  To 
teach  is  more  than  to  train  the  intellect  and 
fill  it  with  information.  It  is  to  make  men. 
The  transformation  in  our  schools  from  the 
idea  of  mere  instruction  to  that  of  symmetri- 
cal development  is  not  yet  fully  accom- 
plished, but  in  principle  the  victory  has  been 
won.  This  victory  is  a  move  in  the  direction 
of  religion.  For,  though  religion  concerns 
the  intellect,  it  is  most  of  all  a  matter  of  the 
heart  and  the  will.  Jesus  declared  that  he  is 
come  that  we  may  have  life,  and  that  we  may 
have  it  abundantly.  There  is  a  sense  in  which 
every  true  teacher  could  say  this  of  himself, 
for  he  is  to  help  his  pupils,  not  only  to  know, 
but  also  to  live.  Whatever  culture  of  the 
feelings  and  the  will  the  school  is  able  to  im- 
part is  so  much  preparation  of  the  soil  for  the 
reception  of  religious  impressions. 


80       EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

50.  And  Active  Though,    modem    educa- 

Self- Expression.         ^.  ,       .  ,,        . 

tion   emphasises   the   inner 

life,  it  demands  that  this  life  come  to  outward 
expression.  "No  impression  without  expres- 
sion" is  its  motto.  It  declares  that  a  mental 
act  is  not  complete  until  it  has  expressed  itself 
by  means  of  the  motor  apparatus,  and  hence 
that  we  do  not  really  grasp  an  idea  until  we 
set  it  at  work.  Does  not  this  remind  us  of  the 
very  words  of  Jesus  when  he  said  that  one 
who  hears  his  words  without  doing  them  is 
like  a  man  who  built  his  house  on  shifting 
isands,  while  he  who  both  hears  and  does  is 
like  a  man  who  built  upon  a  rock  ?  Entrance 
into  the  kingdom  is  accorded,  not  to  those 
who  say  "Lord,  Lord!"  but  to  those  who  do 
God 's  will.  In  religion  and  in  education  alike 
the  inner  and  the  outer  are  properly  indis- 
soluble ;  they  are  the  concave  and  the  convex 
sides  of  the  same  curve.  Hence  education, 
working  in  its  own  way,  enforces  the  lesson 
of  religion.  This  lesson  is  especially  signifi- 
cant in  this  day  of  practical  affairs;  for  the 
only  kind  of  faith  that  is  convincing  to  a 
modern  man  is  the  faith  that  shows  itself  in  its 
good  works,  the  faith  that  spiritualises  con- 
duct, business,  and  all  our  human  relations. 


CONTRIBUTIONS  OF  MODERN  EDUCATION  91 


51.  Christianity  Another  side  of  the  same 

puts  the  Concrete  •       •    ,  .i     -     .i 

before  the  principle  requires  that  the 

Abstract;  sensible   shall   come   before 

the  rational,  the  concrete 
before  the  abstract,  the  reality  before  the  sym- 
bol. The  word,  the  rule,  the  theory,  is  not  to 
be  introduced  until  the  pupil  has  something 
to  express  by  means  of  it.  Hence,  education 
begins,  though  it  does  not  end,  with  things  of 
sense.  The  training  of  the  senses  and  of  the 
muscles,  which  has  become  so  prominent  in 
our  schools,  proceeds  from  no  unspiritual 
view  of  life,  but  from  the  actual  structure  of 
our  minds.  In  the  manual-training  class  the 
child  learns  vastly  more  than  mere  material 
things.  He  learns  arithmetic,  the  laws  of  na- 
ture, self-control;  he  cultivates  attention,  im- 
agination, character.  A  laboratory,  or  a 
landscape,  or  a  mass  of  clay  for  modeling,  if 
only  such  meanings  be  found  therein,  is  fully 
as  spiritual  as  a  book.  Modern  education 
busies  itself  with  objects  that  are  visible  and 
tangible  because  of  what  they  reveal,  and  be- 
cause of  their  effect  upon  the  inner  life  of  the 
child  or  youth.  Is  not  this  principle  a  princi- 
ple of  religion  also  ?  What  is  the  meaning  of 
the  central  idea  of  Christianity,  incarnation, 
unless  it  be  that  men  come  into  relation  with 


92       EDtrCATION   IN   RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

the  invisible  God  through  a  visible  person? 
"That  which  we  have  heard,  that  which  we 
have  seen  with  our  eyes,  that  which  we  be- 
held, and  our  hands  handled,  concerning  the 
Word  of  Life"— this  preface  of  St.  John's 
first  letter  would  serve  with  equal  appropri- 
ateness to  introduce  a  fundamental  concep- 
tion of  modern  education.  When  this  prin- 
ciple has  its  perfect  work  in  our  schools,  it 
will  counteract  two  tendencies  that  are  un- 
favorable to  religion — ^the  tendency  to  think 
of  it  as  abstract  and  speculative,  and  the 
opposite  tendency  to  ignore  the  spiritual  as- 
pects of  the  visible  world. 

52.  Offers  Free-  The  educational  principle 

dom  through  on  •,  a  •  ■ 

Obedience;  01    tree    self -expression    is 

equally  harmonious  with  re- 
ligion. At  first  sight  freedom  may  seem  to 
clash  with  all  authority,  but  the  apparent  con- 
flict disappears  when  we  understand  what 
pedagogy  means  by  freedom.  Freedom  cer- 
tainly does  not  mean  that  the  pupil  is  to  do 
just  as  he  likes;  for  what  one  likes  may  actu- 
ally repress  and  enslave.  Unwholesome  food 
may  be  liked,  but  it  depresses  the  vital  powers. 
Freedom  is  the  active  self-expression,  not  of 
incidental  desires,  but  of  the  deeper  demands 
of  the  nature.     These  deeper  demands  contin- 


CONTRIBUTIONS  OF  MODERN  EDUCATION  93 

ually  oppose  our  more  superficial  impulses,  so 
that  the  attainment  of  freedom  implies  the 
learning  of  self-restraint  and  of  obedience. 
Capricious  indulgence  of  desire  ends  in  slav- 
ery. We  cannot  be  ourselves  unless  we  train 
our  vagrant  impulses  to  bow  before  the  deep- 
er and  higher  things  of  the  spirit.  Freedom 
does  not  exclude  authority,  then,  but  requires 
it.  What  pedagogy  insists  upon  under  the 
name  of  freedom  is  simply  that  the  teacher 
shall  utilise  the  deeper  currents  of  life  so  as 
to  help  the  child  from  within  rather  than  in 
any  merely  external  fashion.  The  deeper 
currents,  as  well  as  the  superficial  ones,  will 
manifest  themselves  in  spontaneous  interests 
which  it  is  the  duty  of  the  teacher  to  seize 
upon.  Artificial  leverage  is  to  be  shunned. 
Whatsoever  is  done  for  the  child  must  include 
a  spontaneous  expression  of  the  child.  When, 
for  example,  restraint  must  be  used,  it  should 
be  so  applied  as  promptly  to  transform  itself 
into  self-restraint. 

Here,  once  more,  modern  education  pre- 
pares the  way  for  religion ;  for  religion  is  it- 
self a  proclamation  of  liberty.  Its  promise  is 
to  release  us  from  bondage  to  sins  and  fears 
and  the  pettiness  of  our  merely  individual  de- 
sires.    It  releases  us  from  the  sense  of  being 


94       EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

oppressed  by  the  bigness  of  the  world,  and 
makes  us  realise  that  all  things  are  ours, 
whether  things  present  or  things  to  come,  or 
life  or  death.  But  it  grants  us  this  liberty 
only  through  self-surrender,  only  through 
that  losing  of  our  life  whereby  we  gain  life. 
In  other  words,  religion  assumes  that  her  com- 
mands are  also  the  commands  of  our  own 
deepest  self.  It  is  thus  that  the  obedience 
that  we  render  to  her  is  our  highest  freedom. 
Education  and  religion  are  thus  at  one  in 
teaching  us  freedom  through  obedience. 

53.  And  Trains  Modern  education  is  like- 

the  Individual  ,  .  .,,,.. 

for  Society.  Wise  working  with  religion 

for  the  adjustment  of  the 
individual  to  society.  The  demand  that  every 
child  shall  have  opportunity  for  education 
recognises  the  ultimate  worth  of  the  person. 
It  is  in  direct  line  with  Christianity,  which 
looks  down  through  wealth,  position,  nation- 
ality, social  circumstance,  to  the  individual 
heart.  On  the  other  hand,  both  education 
and  religion  recognise  right  relations  to  one's 
fellows  as  a  necessary  part  of  true  life, 
Christianity  sets  before  us  the  ideal  of  a 
divine  society  in  which  each  citizen  loves  all 
the  others  as  he  loves  himself.  Something  like 
this  is  coming  to  be  recognised  as  the  end  of 


CONTRIBUTIONS  OF  MODERN  EDUCATION  95 

education.  No  longer  is  it  possible  to  look 
upon  knowledge,  power,  intellectual  and 
Eesthetic  culture,  or  anything  else  that  is  mere- 
ly individual,  as  the  aim  of  the  school.  The 
school  is  to  make  men,  and  strong  men ;  but 
men  strong  in  regard  for  one  another,  strong 
in  their  loyalty  to  law,  strong  in  the  spirit  of 
co-operation. 

54.  Thus  the  These    are    the    essential 

Basis  of  Modern  ,  ^      .     .  „  ■ 

Education  is  characteristics    or    modern 

Christian;  educational      philosophy. 

Every  one  of  them  is  not 
only  reconcilable  with  religion,  but  actually 
included  within  the  Christian  view  of  life. 
We  may  therefore  say  that  the  modern  educa- 
tional movement  as  a  ivhole  has  consisted  in 
the  working  out  of  certain  pedagogical  aspects 
of  Christian  belief.  It  has  by  no  means  ap- 
preciated all  the  wealth  of  educational  prin- 
ciple that  is  contained  in  Christianity,  nor  has 
it  always  kept  itself  free  from  un-Christian 
tendencies  of  the  times.  Educators  have  often 
been  unconscious  of  their  indebtedness  to  re- 
ligion ;  now  and  then  one  of  them  has  been 
hostile  to  the  church.  Doubtless,  too,  the  ad- 
ministration of  education  has  improved  less 
rapidly  than  educational  theory.  Yet,  for  all 
that,   the   educational   movement   of  modern. 


96       EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

times  has  never  been  really  independent  of 
religion.  It  has  builded  better  than  it  knew, 
for  its  inspiration  has  come  from  the  highest 
source.  As  far  as  it  goes,  the  school  is  essen- 
tially a  creation  of  the  religious  spirit,  and  its 
work  is  essentially  religious  and  Christian. 

55.  And  its  It  follows  that  the  entire 
Methods  are  ^  t  n  ^  t  ,-  ^ 
Adapted  to               Dody  ot  modern  educational 

Education  in  principle  is  adapted  to  the 

specific  work  of  training  in 
religion.  The  spirit  of  modern  education  was 
received  from  religion,  and  now,  enriched  by 
new  knowledge  and  wrought  into  a  system,  it 
returns  to  its  source  to  become  the  basis  of  a 
reform  in  the  educational  methods  of  the 
church  itself.  The  contribution  of  modern 
education  to  religion,  then,  is  a  suitable  form 
and  method  for  religious  education.  Thus, 
by  another  route,  we  reach  once  more  the  in- 
sight that  the  essential  characteristic  of  such 
education  is  not  its  method,  but  rather  its  rec- 
ognition of  the  whole  personality  of  the  child, 
the  whole  content  of  civilisation,  and  the 
whole  ideal  of  human  life. 

56.  The  Nature  Now  at  last  we  are  ready 

of  Method.  „  .       ^    -x 

tor  a  more  extended  exposi- 
tion   of    the    chief    principles    that    underlie 


CONTRIBUTIONS  OF  MODERN  EDUCATION  97 

sound  method.  Methods  are  no  longer  to  be 
thought  of  as  mere  catches  or  devices  for 
holding  the  pupil's  interest  while  we  pour 
ideas  into  his  passive  or  neutral  mind.  Inge- 
nuity is,  of  course,  of  real  value  to  a  teacher, 
for  the  teaching  process  can  never  be  a  merely 
mechanical  cutting  of  cloth  according  to  a 
pattern.  But  ingenuity  should  be  in  the  serv- 
ice of  insight.  In  the  absence  of  educational 
principles,  mere  devices  soon  degenerate  into 
vices.  Sound  methods  grow  directly  out  of 
the  inmost  nature  of  the  child  and  of  the 
world  in  which  he  is  to  realise  himself.  They 
are  simply  expressions  of  the  nature  of  real- 
ity ;  they  are  the  laws  of  the  child 's  self-reali- 
sation making  themselves  effective  through  us 
who  teach. 


CHAPTER  VII 

EDUCATION  AS  DEVELOPMENT  OF  LIVING  BEINGS 

57.  The  Mechan-  Qur  definition  of  educa- 

ical,  the  Vital,  ,.  ^x.    ^  -j.  ■  nc     ^ 

and  the  Personal,    tion  says  that  it  IS  an  effort 

to  assist  development.  It 
consists  in  exercising  influence  upon  a  living 
being.  Now,  the  effect  of  any  influence  de- 
pends not  merely  upon  the  source,  direction, 
and  intent  of  it,  but  also  upon  the  kind  of  ob- 
ject upon  which  it  is  directed.  We  influence 
mere  things  through  pushes  and  pulls,  but  a 
vital  process  cannot  be  controlled  in  quite  the 
same  way.  In  education  we  have  to  do  with 
life,  not  with  mere  things.  We  can  build  a 
house  by  laying  one  brick  upon  another,  but 
we  can,  increase  the  weight  of  a  living  organ- 
ism only  by  feeding.  We  can  bring  an  organ- 
ism to  maturity  only  as  an  inner  prin- 
ciple of  growth  makes  use  of  the  con- 
ditions \\''hich  we  provide.  Whatever  be  the 
ultimate  nature  of  vital  processes,  this  prac- 
tical difference  between  them  and  mechanical 
processes  has  always  to  be  observed.  A  liv- 
ing thing  grows  only  by  assimilating  food. 
Education,  then,  because  it  has  to  do  with  the 


EDUCATION    AS    DEVELOPMENT    OF    LIFE     99 

growth  of  living  beings,  cannot  be  any  mere 
mechanical  compulsion,  any  mere  moulding 
of  material,  any  mere  heaping  up  or  storing 
of  anything  whatever.  Its  type  must  be  feed- 
ing, not  pushing  and  pulling,  not  mere  adding 
and  subtracting.  It  succeeds  only  as  external 
material  is  transformed  into  living  tissue,  and 
this  act  of  transforming  is  performed  by  the 
organism  itself.  Education  is  not  a  mec'han- 
ical  but  a  vital  process. 

Further,  it  is  not  only  vital,  but  also  per- 
sonal. To  be  a  person  is  not  merely  to  act 
from  a  law  that  is  within,  and  to  impose  this 
law  upon  external  material ;  it  is  also  to  take 
possession  of  the  law,  to  be  a  lawgiver  to  one's 
self,  and  so  to  have  self-knowledge  and  ex- 
ercise self-control.  A  mere  thing  has  no  self ; 
a  plant  or  animal  has  no  self ;  for  they  never 
take  possession  of  themselves,  and  their  acts 
are  never  their  own  in  this  deep  sense,  but 
rather  processes  wrought  upon  or  through 
rather  than  by  them.  Now,  education  seeks 
to  influence  action  that  is  already  self-action, 
or  in  process  of  becoming  such.  It  is  a  rela- 
tion between  persons.  Reserving  for  the  next 
chapter  an  analysis  of  the  personal  aspect  of 
development,  let  us  see  what  is  involved  in 
the  organic  or  vital  aspect  thereof. 


100     EDUCATION    IN   RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

58.  The  Psycho-  A  human  being  is  neither 

Physical  ,  „ 

Organism.  ^   lump    or   matter,    nor   a 

ghost,  nor  one  of  these  plus 
the  other.  Man  is  neither  a  body  that  feels 
and  thinks,  nor  yet  a  soul  that  merely  uses  the 
body  as  a  dwelling  place  or  as  a  tool.  Pythag- 
oras and  Plato  looked  upon  the  body  as  a 
prison  of  the  soul,  and  many  Christian  writ- 
ers followed  their  example.  Their  view  has 
a  partial,  but  only  partial,  justification.  In- 
citements to  sin  and  vice  arise  largely  out  of 
what  is  called  animal  impulse  and  instinct, 
and  in  many  other  ways  the  body  appears  as 
an  obstacle  to  the  soul.  Apparently  it  is  the 
body  that  grows  weary  and  demands  sleep, 
that  grows  hungry  and  demands  food,  that 
contracts  disease,  that  holds  us  bound  to 
place  and  circumstance.  Certainly  it  is  true 
that  bodily  conditions  represent  to  us  our 
mental  limitations,  and  that  the  attainment 
of  good  character  consists  in  no  small  measure 
in  securing  control  of  the  body  for  moral  ends. 
Yet  mind  and  body  are  not  two  utterly  for- 
eign powers.  The  mind  does  not  merely  con- 
quer the  body.  The  relation  is  far  more  inti- 
mate and  positive  than  that.  In  a  sense  man 
is  both  body  and  mind;  the  one  life  has  two 
aspects.     Something  like  this  thought  appears 


EDUCATION  AS  DEVELOPMENT  OP  LIFE  101 

to  have  been  in  Paul's  mind  when,  in  his  dis- 
cussion of  the  resurrection,  he  attributed 
bodily  life  to  us  even  in  the  future  world.^  So 
far  is  the  body  from  being  a  prison,  or  a  resi- 
dence, or  a  mere  tool,  that  for  the  practical 
purposes  of  education  we  are  obliged  to  look 
upon  the  physical  life  and  the  mental  life  as 
one  life.-  In  psychology  this  relation  bears 
the  name  of  the  co-ordination  or  parallelism 
of  mind  and  brain.  All  mental  activity  is 
accompanied  by  brain  activity;  the  attributes 
of  the  human  mind  appear  in  connection  with 
a  human  brain,  and  there  only ;  maturity  of 
mental  life  must  wait  for  maturity  of  body; 
mental  health  and  disease  have  as  their  re- 
verse side  corresponding  brain  states.  Even 
this  is  only  the  beginning  of  the  story.  "We 
shall  see  in  the  sequel  not  only  that  the  condi- 
tions of  bodily  growth  are  also  conditions  of 
mental  development,  but  also  that  the  specific 
'^  training  of  character  takes  place  partly  in 
and  through  specific  training  of  the  body.^ 

U  Cor.  15,  35-49. 

*  Our  purpose  at  this  point  is  simply  to  secure  a  prac- 
tical working  view  of  the  facts.  The  "metaphysical  prob- 
lem has  been  touched  upon  in  Chapter  III,  §  26. 

^  A  recent  writer  has  shown  that  many  character-de- 
fects have  a  little-suspected  physiological  ground.  Thus, 
a  boy  who  induljres  in  'foul'  playing  in  basket-hall  em- 
ploys this  underhand  means  very  likely  because  he  is 
not  physically  capable  of  winning,  or  of  doing  his  part 
toward   winning,    in   the    normal   manner.     His   physical 


102     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

59.  How  the  From  the  vital  aspect  of 

Child   Gives   Laws        -,         .-  -.      n  n  ,i     . 

for  Education.  education  it  lollows  that 
educational  laws  do  not 
originate  altogether  with  the  teacher  and 
merely  find  their  application  in  the  child;  in 
large  part  they  originate  in  the  child  and  find 
their  point  of  application  in  the  teacher.  In 
a  true  sense,  the  child  gives  laws,  and  the 
teacher  obeys.  As  a  gardener  is  governed  by 
the  vital  laws  of  the  rose  bush  or  cherry  tree 
that  he  would  cultivate,  so  it  is  with  the 
teacher.  As  far  as  the  child's  body  is  con- 
cerned, this  principle  is  obvious,  but  how  few 
of  us  realise  its  application  to  the  child's 
mind !  The  child  or  the  youth  perceives,  feels, 
and  thinks  in  his  own  way,  and  that  way  is 
different  from  ours.  His  mental  development 
depends  upon  his  having  mental  food  appro- 
priate to  these  mental  traits.  The  educator's 
duty  is  to  find  out  what  kind  of  food  is  appro- 
priate, and,  having  provided  it,  to  rely  upon 
the  internal  processes  of  assimilation  to  do  the 
rest.  This  implies  effort  to  discover  how  each 
thing   in  the  child's  life  appears  from  the 

vitality  Is  likely  to  be  found  below  the  normal. — See 
article  by  Elias  G.  Brown  in  Boyhood,  1903  :  "Curable 
Physical  Defects,"  etc. — There  is,  in  fact,  scarcely  a  de- 
fect of  disposition  or  of  habitual  will  in  a  child  or  youth 
concerning  which  it  is  not  wise  to  ask  how  far,  if  at  all, 
physical  conditions  contribute  to  it. 


EDUCATION  AS  DEVELOPMENT  OF  LIFE   103 

child's  own  standpoint;  it  implies,  also,  imag- 
ination and  sympathy,  which  alone  make  it 
possible  for  an  adult  to  enter  into  child  life 
in  any  living  way. 

What  self-control  and  self-restraint  does 
not  this  require !  How  easy  it  is  to  assume 
that  what  is  obvious  to  us  ought  to  be  obvious 
to  the  young  also ;  how  laborious  to  ask  our- 
selves each  time  how  it  seems  from  their  point 
of  view.  How  easy  it  seems  for  our  strength 
to  compel  weak  childhood  to  adapt  itself  to  us 
and  to  things  as  they  appear  to  us.  Yet  in 
reality  we  can  no  more  compel  a  child's  mind 
than  we  can  compel  his  digestion.  AVithin 
limits,  to  be  sure,  we  can  control  both,  but 
wholesome  control  in  either  case  consists  in 
providing  appropriate  food  and  other  con- 
ditions. It  consists  in  our  obeying  rather 
than  compelling.  Even  when  a  child  out- 
wardly conforms  to  us ;  when  lips  repeat  what 
we  wish  to  hear ;  when  the  child  is  sincere  in 
his  utterances,  there  may  be  mental  indiges- 
tion and  mal-assimilation.  By  and  by,  when 
some  catastrophe  to  faith  or  character  occurs, 
we  wonder  how  it  is  that  a  person  who  has 
enjoyed  such  a  good  bringing  up  can  go  so 
far  astray.  The  root  of  the  matter  is  that, 
from  the  beginning,  pressure  has  taken  the 


104     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

place  of  food,  and  the  resulting  conformity 
has  been  mistaken  for  growth.  In  other  cases 
we  are  puzzled  to  behold  good  character  blos- 
soming in  a  bed  of  weeds.  The  child's  train- 
ing has  been  neglected,  yet  he  turns  out  well. 
In  such  cases,  if  we  could  see  all  the  condi- 
tions, we  should  generally  discover  that,  in 
some  way,  the  child  had  actually  had  access 
to  appropriate  food.^ 
60.  Th3  Child  is  A      difference      between 

not  a  Diminutive  ,  .,  ,  ,.„  ,      ,    ,,  ,.„     , 

Adult,  but  child  lire  and  adult  liie  has 

Qualitatively  always  been  recognised,  of 

course.  But  the  points  of 
difference  have  not  generally  been  under- 
stood. Our  first  thought  is  that  the  child 
is  simply  small  and  weak,  that  the  dif- 
ference between  him  and  a  grown  person 
is  merely  quantitative.  But  this  is  not 
true  of  either  mind  or  body.  The  adult 
body  is  not  only  larger  and  stronger;  it 
has  also  functions  that  are  altogether  absent 
in  the  child.  So  it  is  with  the  mind.  There  is 
not  only  a  difference  in  range  of  experience 
and  power  of  inference,  but  also  in  emotional 
color,  in  felt  values,  in  personal  meaning  in 
things  and  ideas.    An  adult  and  a  child  who 

'  Yet  we  must  never  assume  that  circumstances  alone 
determine  character.  See  the  next  chapter,  especially 
i  67. 


EDUCATION  AS  DEVELOPMENT  OF  LIFE   105 


are  placed  in  the  same  situation  do  not  neces- 
sarily experience  it  as  the  same,  any  more 
than  an  artist  and  a  plowman  feel  a  given 
landscape  in  the  same  way.  A  subjective 
principle  enters  into  the  interpretation  in 
every  case,  and  childhood  and  youth  at  their 
various  stages  have  characteristic  modes  of 
interpretation.  The  language  of  religion  and 
morals  does  not  mean  just  the  same  in  the 
mouth  of  a  child  as  in  that  of  an  adult.  A 
given  act,  also,  that  indicates  a  certain  mental 
condition  in  adult  life  may  be  performed  by 
a  child  from  an  entirely  different  internal 
impulse.  Some  of  the  evidence  for  this  prop- 
osition will  be  given  as  we  proceed,  but  all 
child  study  proves  it.  The  child  lives  in  his 
own  world,  and,  though  he  may  be  truly  re- 
ligious, he  will  be  so  in  his  own  way.  He 
should  not  be  expected  to  reproduce  the  re- 
ligion of  his  elders,  even  in  diminutive  form. 

61.  Development  Another   way  of  stating 

Mer/GrowTh.  this     important     difference 

between  the  child  and  the 
adult  is  this :  The  child  develops,  and  develop- 
ment is  more  than  mere  growth.  Growth 
signifies  increase  in  size  or  strength,  while 
development  includes  the  further  notion  of 
qualitative  change.     The  normal  progress  of 


106     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

a  child  is  not  movement  up  an  inclined  plane ; 
there  is  not  simply  more  and  more  of  the 
same  thing.  We  have  not  simply  to  provide 
a  certain  kind  of  food  in  larger  and  larger 
quantities.  The  problem  of  education  is 
vastly  more  complicated  tlian  that.  The  diet 
of  the  mind,  as  well  as  that  of  the  body,  has 
to  be  changed  from  time  to  time.  The  practi- 
cal outcome  is  that  we  must  begin  to  observe 
times  and  seasons  in  child  development.  We 
must  know  when  to  change  from  one  kind  of 
food  to  another.  The  resulting  conception  is 
that  of  a  series  of  stages  which  have  much 
in  common,  but  each  of  which  makes  its  own 
demands  and  its  own  contributions  to  the 
child's  progress. 

62.  Education  is  Development,  rather  than 

More    tlian    Mere        .       ,  ..  •      .^  o  .1 

Instruction.  instruction,  IS  theretore  the 

central  idea  in  education. 
Instruction  has  reference  to  the  intellect,  or 
function  of  knowing,  while  education  has  ref- 
erence to  the  whole  living  being.  Moreover, 
instruction  is  not  necessarily  educative  at  all ; 
for  it  may  issue  in  increase  of  knowledge 
without  any  increase  of  the  self.  Instruction 
is  truly  educative  only  when  it  contributes  to 
self  development,  only  when  it  enters  into 
vital  and  nutritive  connection  with  the  child 's 


EDUCATION   AS  DEVELOPMENT  OF  LIFE       107 

life  from  stage  to  stage,  only  when  the  knowl- 
edge that  it  conveys  ceases  to  be  an  external 
possession  and  becomes,  so  to  speak,  flesh  of 
one's  flesh.  The  best  thing  that  can  happen 
to  any  child  is  to  have  the  means  of  living  his 
own  life  completely  at  each  stage.  That  is 
the  best  preparation  for  the  future,  and  noth- 
ing, absolutely  nothing,  is  gained  by  attach- 
ing information  to  the  outside  of  his  life.  Of 
course,  a  truth  may  have  lower  and  higher 
aspects;  it  may  even  be  adapted  to  all  stages 
of  development;  and  in  general  such  truths 
are  the  most  educative  of  all.  Yet  the  higher 
aspects  must  await  the  coming  of  the  child. 
To  unfold  them  too  early  is  to  make  them  ex- 
ternal and  to  run  the  risk  that  this  external 
look  of  them  will  exclude  all  further  consid- 
eration, even  at  the  appropriate  age. 

63.  Adaptation  is  These  remarks  have  im- 

More    than     Mere  ,.    ,  t      ,• 

Simplification.  mediate   application   to   re- 

ligious education.  For  our 
ancient  and  inveterate  habit  has  been,  first,  to 
regard  the  child  as  simply  a  diminutive  adult ; 
second,  to  identify  religious  instruction  with 
religious  education ;  and,  third,  to  assume  that 
the  mere  simplification  of  such  instruction 
constitutes  adequate  adaptation.  For  adults 
there  has  been  a  longer  catechism,  and  for 


108     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

children  the  same  catechism  abbreviated. 
Adaptation  to  childhood  has  been,  in  fact, 
largely  verbal,  as  though  the  child  could  really 
take  in  a  system  of  theology  if  only  the  words 
and  sentences  were  short  and  simple.  That 
this  is  no  exaggeration  of  the  practically  uni- 
vereal  attitude  of  only  a  few  years  ago  could 
easily  be  proved  from  printed  matter  intended 
for  U5(e  with  children.  Connected  with  this 
misunderstanding  of  the  child  was  a  misun- 
derstanding of  the  adult  also,  for  the  assump- 
tion was  made  that  the  graces  of  the  Chris- 
tian life  are  in  general  products  of  a  knowl- 
edge of  Christian  doctrines.  Undoubtedly 
a  completed  character  is  one  in  which  the 
truth  is  consciously  realised  in  conduct.  But 
this  rational  element  is  certainly  not  the  most 
prominent  factor  even  with  adults,  much  less 
with  children.  Other  elements  of  character 
appear  first,  such  as  right  feeling,  aspiration, 
habit.  These  things  grow  through  processes 
that  are  unconscious  to  the  child,  and  often 
to  parents  and  teachers.  Unconscious  imita- 
tion and  unreasoned  adoption  of  prevailing 
standards  are  far  more  influential  than  any 
possible  teaching  of  doctrine. 

Adaptation  to  the  child,  therefore,  does  not 
consist   chiefly  in   the   simplification  of  Ian- 


EDUCATION  AS  DEVELOPMENT  OF  LIFE  109 

guage  or  even  of  ideas.  It  does  not  consist 
chiefly  in  any  scheme  of  instruction  what- 
ever. It  implies,  first  of  all,  that  the  whole 
environment  of  the  child  be  attended  to.  His 
education,  for  weal  or  for  woe,  goes  forward 
through  everything  with  which  he  comes  into 
contact.  Food,  sanitary  conditions,  contact 
with  nature,  with  books,  with  newspapers, 
with  pictures,  the  tone  of  the  family  life,  the 
principles  that  actually  control  the  conduct 
of  those  abouthim— all  these  must  be  included 
in  any  broad  scheme  of  adaptation.  Then  will 
be  added  adaptation  in  respect  to  instruction. 
This  will  include,  in  addition  to  simplification, 
the  adjustment  of  the  subject-matter  itself  to 
the  various  stages  of  development,  and  the 
adjustment  of  method  to  the  characteristic 
mental  standpoint  at  each  stage. 

64.  Spontaneous  What,  then,  is  the  clue  to 

Interests  as  Clue       ,,  ,       ,        ,    ,  „      ,. 

and  Leverage.  the      actual     state      01     the 

child's  mind?  In  general, 
his  spontaneous  interests.  Not  all  his  inter- 
ests, for  it  is  possible  to  work  up  artificial 
ones.  By  means  of  rewards  and  punishments, 
by  appeals  to  vanity,  emulation  or  selfishness, 
by  stimulation  of  various  kinds,  even  the 
stimulus  of  love  for  a  teacher,  the  child  may 
be  made  eagerly  to  run  in  a  road  other  than 


110     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

that  of  normal  development.  The  mere  fact 
that  a  child  is  interested  in  a  study  does  not 
prove  that  the  study  is  wholesome  for  him  or 
that  the  method  is  sound.  The  interest  may 
be  a  destroying  fever,  or,  if  not  positively 
deleterious,  it  may  over-develop  the  mind  in 
one  direction  while  essential  powers  are  going 
to  decay.  What  the  child's  nature  actually 
calls  for  at  any  stage  can  be  discovered  only 
by  noting  what  he  spontaneously  does  in  the 
presence  of  abundant  material  for  self-expres- 
sion. The  child  is  essentially  active  in  both 
body  and  mind.  Watch  him  when  he  has  per- 
fect freedom,  and  you  shall  discover  that 
work,  both  mental  and  physical,  is  done  with 
enjoyment.  Through  such  work  comes  power, 
development,  education.  Here  the  child  re- 
veals himself,  and  here  parent  and  teacher 
find  the  true  educational  leverage.  They  have 
the  task  of  providing  truly  educative  material 
in  which  the  pupil's  interest  will  be  spon- 
taneous, not  forced  or  over-stimulated. 

Here  is  a  boy  who  insists  upon  taking  the 
family  clock  to  pieces  in  order  to  see  how  it 
keeps  time.  This  spontaneous  interest  may  be 
treated  in  either  of  three  ways:  It  may  be 
suppressed,  or  it  may  be  indulged  without 
guidance,   or  it   may   be   guided   toward   an 


EDUCATION  AS  DEVELOPMENT  OF  LIFE  111 

educational  end.  To  suppress  it  is  to  cause 
a  wholesome  intellectual  impulse  to  wither. 
To  indulge  it  without  guidance  leads  to  de- 
structiveness  and  sensationalism — things  will 
be  taken  to  pieces  for  the  sake  of  the  imme- 
diate impression.  But  through  wise  feeding 
of  this  interest  the  boy  may  attain  not  only 
to  knowledge  of  mechanical  principles  and 
devices,  but  also  to  habits  of  observation  and 
sound  induction. 

Note,  similarly,  the  restless  hands  of  the 
boys  in  yonder  Sunday-school  class.  Here  is 
a  sign  that  occupation  should  be  provided  for 
hands  as  well  as  brain,  and  that  body  and 
mind  should  work  together  in  the  learning  of 
the  day's  lesson. 

Here  is  a  child  who  calls  for  stories,  stories, 
without  end.  Of  what  possible  use  would  it 
be  to  give  such  a  child  instruction  in  a  doc- 
trinal catechism?  Let  the  spontaneous  in- 
terest be  fed,  yet  not  for  the  sake  of  quieting 
the  child.  For  the  content  of  the  story  ed- 
ucates. Imagination,  feeling,  moral  and  spir- 
itual aspiration  can  be  called  out  by  simply 
bringing  appropriate  images  before  the  mind 
in  the  story  form. 

When  a  boy  reaches  the  age  that  calls  for 
** blood  and  thunder"  stories,  what  shall  be 


112     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

done?  Shall  we  condemn  his  taste  because 
we  ourselves  have  outgrown  it  ?  Shall  we  try- 
to  suppress  such  reading?  That  would  give 
incentive  for  the  clandestine  reading  that  has 
helped  to  ruin  many  a  boy.  Secret  disobedi- 
ence is  the  natural  result  of  trying  to  sup- 
press a  spontaneous  interest.  And  even  if 
our  negative  measures  succeed,  what  do  we 
accomplish?  We  simply  take  something  of 
the  spirit,  the  freshness,  the  initiative  out 
of  the  boy;  he  is  in  the  way  of  becoming 
namby-pamby.  The  only  sound  method  is  to 
supply  the  demand  by  providing  wholesome 
tales  of  adventure  and  heroism.^ 

65.  Securing  and  The  problem  of  securing 

Holding  i    i     i  t  . ,       .•  i 

Attention.  ^^^l   holding  attention  has 

bothered  teachers  always 
and  everywhere.  One  reason  therefor  is  that 
the  relation  of  attention  to  interest  has  been 
only  imperfectly  understood.  On  this  point 
there  are  two  extremes  to  be  avoided.  One  is 
the  old  notion  of  compelling  attention  by 
creating  artificial  interests,  whether  by  means 
of  rewards  and  punishments,  or  by  means  of 
emulation  or  other  kinds  of  artificial  stimula- 

'  At  the  same  time,  we  should  remember  that  an  in- 
terest that  appears  to  be  spontaneous  may  be  a  product 
of  earlier  training  or  of  earlier  neglect.  See  Introduc- 
tion to  Irving  King :  The  Psychology  of  Child-Develop- 
ment   (Chicago,   1903). 


EDUCATION  AS  DEVELOPMENT  OF  LIFE   113 

tion.  Tlie  other  extreme  consists  in  relying 
so  completely  upon  spontaneous,  pleasure- 
giving  interests  as  not  to  produce  the  abso- 
lutely essential  habit  of  giving  attention  to 
disagreeable  things.  If  we  adopt  the  first  ex- 
treme, the  artificiality  of  the  incentives  upon 
which  we  rely  is  likely  to  be  attributed  by  the 
pupil  to  the  subject-matter  of  instruction. 
But  if  we  adopt  the  second  extreme,  our  pupils 
will  fail  to  learn  the  lesson  of  doing  duty  as 
good  soldier's,  whether  it  is  agreeable  or  not. 

The  child  must  be  trained,  then,  to  attend 
to  unattractive  things,  yet  not  as  a  slave  under 
compulsion,  but  through  an  inner,  personal 
interest  in  them.  This  is  to  say  that  the 
range  and  depth  of  his  interests  must  be  in- 
creased. The  entering  wedge  is  the  present, 
spontaneous  interest,  whatever  it  may  be. 
This  alreadj^  has  the  attention.  The  next 
move  is  to  feed  this  interest  with  such  ma- 
terial as  enlarges  and  guides  it,  and  so  trans- 
fers attention  to  new  matter  which  at  first 
perhaps  is  not  felt  to  be  interesting.  Interest 
in  things  present  can  be  extended  to  things  of 
the  same  class  in  the  past.  From  picture  to 
story,  from  story  to  biography,  from  biog- 
raphy to  history;  from  a  battle  as  an  out- 
ward event  to  the  issue  involved,  and  finally 


114     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

to  political  or  ethical  principles ;  from  our  na- 
tional heroes  to  the  heroes  of  the  Bible  and  of 
Christian  history — these  will  represent  the 
principle  of  extending  interests  and  so  ex- 
tending attention.  In  general,  attention 
should  be  secured  and  held  through  the  in- 
trinsic value  which  the  child  feels  to  be 
present  in  the  subject-matter  of  instruction. 
This  does  not  exclude  such  extrinsic  incite- 
ments as  arise  naturally  through  group  activ- 
ities, but  it  warns  us  against  detaching  in- 
struction from  the  immediate,  spontaneous 
interest.  On  the  basis  of  intrinsic  interest 
the  teacher  can  secure  the  hardest  work, 
work  that  even  approximates  the  hardships 
that  children  willingly  go  through  in  carry- 
ing on  their  sports  or  other  self-initiated  en- 
terprises. Furthermore,  self-imposed  hard 
work,  if  the  subject-matter  be  worthy  and 
of  sufficient  breadth  and  depth,  is  the  most 
educative.  For  in  later  life  the  real  test  of 
our  character  will  be  whether  we  will  impose 
upon  ourselves  tasks  that  we  might  escape, 
whether  we  will  take  an  interest  in  that  which 
is  worthy  of  our  interest.^ 

1  On  the  relation  of  spontaneous  to  acquired  interests, 
see  William  James :  Talks  to  Teachers  on  Psychology 
(New  York,  1899).  On  the  necessity  of  starting  all  In- 
Btruction  at  the  child's  level  and  upon  the  ground  of 
an  already  existing  interest,  see  Patterson  DuBois :  The 
Point  of  Contact  in  Teaching   (New  York,  1901). 


EDUCATION  AS  DEVELOPMENT  OP  LIFE  IIS 

66.  Apperception  This  principle  of  building 

or  Mental  ^  -n  ■  ^  t 

Assimilation.  irom  witmn  outward  must 

be  pursued  a  step  further. 
A  spontaneous  interest  means  that  the  mind 
is  actively  seeking  its  food.  Now,  just  as 
physical  food,  in  order  to  fulfil  its  end,  must 
be  not  only  eaten  but  also  assimilated,  so  in- 
struction must  be  mentally  assimilated  before 
it  can  build  up  the  mind.^  The  technical 
name  for  mental  assimilation  is  apperception. 
The  fact  is  as  simple  as  the  name  is  clumsy. 
The  essential  fact  is  that  we  understand  a 
new  idea  by  means  of  ideas  we  already  have. 
A  little  boy  who  had  learned  to  call  a  dog 
"bow-wow,"  gave  the  same  name  to  cats, 
sheep,  and  other  small  animals.  When  the 
Thanksgiving  turkey  appeared  upon  the  table, 
"Bow-wow"  was  his  remark.  Similarly  cows 
and  other  large  animals  were  called  "ossy" 
(horse).  This  extension  of  old  names  to  new 
objects  is  an  outward  sign  that  new  objects 
are  being  grouped  into  the  classes  already 
recognised.  The  new  is  thus  being  assimilated 
by  means  of  the  old.  In  the  days  before  the 
Chicago  River  had  been  purified  by  means  of 
the  drainage  canal,  a  little  girl  was  heard  to 

^  To  this  physical  simile,  Patterson  DuBois  has  added 
several  others,  as  nurture  by  atmosphere,  by  light,  and 
by  exercise. — TTie  Natural  Way  in  Moral  Training  (New 
York,  1903). 


116     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

remark  to  a  companion,  ' '  I  hate  rivers,  don 't 
you?"  "Why?"  said  the  other.  "Because 
they  smell  so ! "  was  the  reply.  This  little  girl 
was  interpreting  her  instruction  in  geography 
by  means  of  her  own  experiences. 

This  process  is  a  universal  one.  We  see  the 
new  through  the  old,  the  distant  through  the 
near;  we  understand  things  that  we  have  not 
experienced  by  imaging  them  under  the  form 
of  those  that  we  have  experienced.  We  grasp 
the  idea  of  God 's  love  through  our  experience 
as  children  and  parents,  or  as  wives  and 
husbands,  and  the  highest  conception  of 
divinity  that  we  can  form  is  that  which  we 
receive  through  contemplation  of  a  com- 
plete human  life.  On  the  other  hand,  each 
new  experience  or  idea,  in  the  act  of 
being  interpreted  by  means  of  an  old  one, 
modifies  it.  After  the  little  boy  had  called 
the  Thanksgiving  turkey  "bow-wow,"  this 
name  meant  more  to  him  than  before,  and  the 
object,  dog,  had  new  and  wider  relationships. 
The  great  fact  of  apperception,  then,  broadly 
stated,  is  that  the  old  idea  interprets  the  new 
one,  but  is  modified  by  it. 

The  applications  of  this  principle  to  educa- 
tion are  perfectly  direct.  First,  the  success 
of  any  educational  effort  depends  at  every 


EDUCATION  AS  DEVELOPMENT  OF  LIFE  117 

stage  upon  the  extent  and  depth  of  the  child's 
past  experience  not  less  than  upon  the  new 
material  that  is  presented.  Hence  the  value 
of  large  and  varied  contact  with  nature,  of 
handling  things,  of  using  tools,  of  engaging 
all  the  senses  and  all  the  active  powers. 
Second,  perceiving  anything  is  more  than 
merely  seeing  it,  and  learning  a  truth  is  more 
than  committing  to  memory  the  formula 
thereof,  even  though  the  meaning  of  every 
word  in  the  formula  be  understood.  The 
ability  to  define  and  formulate,  or  even  to 
give  correct  answers  to  searching  questions 
does  not  measure  one's  actual  acquisitions. 
The  important  question  always  is  this :  What 
does  this  mean  to  the  child  in  terms  of  his 
own  experience?  Third,  it  follows  that  the 
teacher  must  give  at  least  as  much  attention 
to  what  is  already  in  the  child's  mind  as  to 
the  new  ideas  that  are  to  be  presented.  The 
new  idea  cannot  be  handed  over,  or  fired  into 
the  waiting  mind.  It  can  only  be  attached  to 
some  idea  already  there,  and  if  it  is  not  so 
attached  it  is  not  really  acquired.  One  of  the 
great  undertakings  of  the  child-study  move- 
ment is  to  discover  what  is  the  stock  of  ideas 
of  children  at  various  ages.  Such  a  stock  of 
ideas  reveals  "the  point  of  contact"  with  the 


118     EDUCATION   IN   RELIGION  AND  MORALS 


child's  actual  experience,  and  knowledge  of  it 
enables  the  teacher  to  effect  the  junction  or 
rather  fusion  of  the  new  and  the  old  through 
the  child's  own  spontaneous  interest.  Many 
applications  of  this  principle  to  religious  and 
moral  instruction  lie  upon  the  surface.  Others 
will  be  unfolded  as  we  proceed. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

EDUCATION  AS  DEVELOPMENT  OF  PERSONS 

67.  What  is  it  to  We   have   said   that   the 

be  a  Person?  i  m  i    •  ,  i 

child  IS  not  merely  an  or- 
ganism, physical  and  mental,  but  also  a 
person.  What  is  it  to  be  a  person  ?  Without 
being  too  formal  or  technical,  we  may  answer 
that  personality  implies  self-knowledge  and 
self-control,  or,  more  definitely,  the  ability  to 
think  one's  self  in  relation  to  one's  world,  set 
ends  before  one's  self  as  desirable,  and  freely 
choose  them  as  one's  own.  Now,  education  is 
intended  to  assist  the  child  to  realise  himself 
as  a  person.  Here  our  figure  of  development 
through  feeding  ceases  to  be  adequate.  For, 
whereas  digestion  and  assimilation  are 
wrought  within  us  rather  than  by  us,  we  are 
persons  only  through  acts  of  self-discrimina- 
tion, self-criticism,  and  choice  that  are  strictly 
our  own.  There  is  a  sense  in  which  personal- 
ity or  selfhood  may  be  said  to  be  self-attained 
rather  than  bestowed.  From  within  are  the 
issues  of  life.  Of  course  we  are  not  self- 
originating  but  created,  yet  the  deepest  mys- 
tery of  creation  lies  just  in  the  fact  that  we 


120     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

are  at  once  dependent  creatures  and  yet  free 
persons,  that  we  are  bestowed  upon  ourselves 
and  yet  have  to  attain  to  ourselves.  At  the 
beginning  of  life  we  are  free  persons  only  in 
a  potential  sense.  We  are  not  in  possession 
of  ourselves,  but  we  are  possessed  by  impres- 
sions and  impulses.  In  a  very  complete  sense 
we  are  as  yet  creatures  of  circumstances.  Only 
through  a  long  and  slow  process  of  education 
does  anyone  attain  to  his  own  self,  but  in  pro- 
portion as  he  does  attain  thereunto  he  becomes 
free.  He  is  no  longer  a  mere  mental  mechan- 
ism moved  by  blind  impulse,  but  in  some 
measure  he  uses  the  mechanism  of  his  own 
mind  for  self-chosen  ends.  He  is  no  longer  a 
mere  creature  of  circumstances;  he  does  not 
merely  adjust  himself  to  his  environment,  but 
rather  he  adjusts  his  environment  to  his  own 
ends.  What  a  circumstance  shall  be  to  a 
person  depends  upon  what  the  person  chooses 
to  make  of  it.^  In  view  of  all  this  we  may  well 
modify  our  earlier  definitions  of  education  by 
making  it  to  be  an  effort  to  assist  immature 
persons  to  realise  themselves  and  their  des- 
tiny as  persons. 

*  Mackenzie  well  says  that  what  a  circumstance  Is  to 
us,  and  so  what  are  to  be  reckoned  circumstances,  de- 
pends upon  our  character.  The  same  external  or  internal 
fact  is  one  thing  to  one  man,  another  to  another. — J.  S. 
Mackenzie:  Manual  of  Ethics  (London,  1899),  pages 
85  ff. 


EDUCATION  AS  DEVELOPMENT  OF  PERSONS  121 

68.  Self-Realisa-  Education    is    to    assist 

tion    Requires  ,„         ,.        . 

Self- Expression.  seli-realisation.  This  im- 
plies, first,  that  the  pupil  is 
to  be  active,  not  passive.  It  implies,  in  the 
second  place,  not  only  activity,  or  the  exercise 
of  functions,  but  also  self-originating  activity. 
In  a  sense  the  only  education  possible  for  a 
person  is  self-education.  This  is  not  quite 
the  same  as  training.  Training  includes  the 
formation  of  habit  and  increase  of  power  or 
accuracy  through  practice  ;  education  includes 
all  this  and  in  addition  the  securing  possession 
of  one's  self  or  free  self-realisation.  A  dog  or 
a  horse  can  be  trained,  but  only  persons  can 
be  educated.  It  follows,  in  the  third  place, 
that  true  education  must  develop  individual- 
ity. Its  products  cannot  be  machine-made  and 
uniform.  It  is  true,  as  Jesus  tells  us,  that  we 
can  save  our  life  only  by  self-sacrifice  for 
society,  but  there  must  first  be  a  self  before 
there  can  be  self-sacrifice.  The  self-sacrifice 
that  Jesus  had  in  mind  is  not  dull  conformity 
or  obliteration  of  individuality,  but  the  active 
contribution  to  society  of  something  that  is 
worth  while.  The  more  distinctive  the  con- 
tribution, the  more  does  it  enrich  the  life  of 
society.  The  social  end  of  education  is  there- 
fore not  hindered  but  promoted  through  the 


122     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

development  of  strong  individuality  in 
pupils.^  Summing  up  these  implicates,  we  may 
say  that  the  education  of  persons  must  assist 
their  self-realisation,  that  self-realisation  re- 
quires self-expression,  and  that  this  includes 
activity,  initiative  or  freedom,  and  individ- 
uality, 

69.  "No  Impres-  The  necessity  for  activity 

sion   without 

Expression."  on   the   part  of  the  pupil 

might  have  been  shown  in 
the  last  chapter,  where  we  were  dealing  with 
the  mind  simply  as  an  organism.  For  growth, 
as  everyone  knows,  comes  through  exercise. 
But  this  truth  attains  vastly  deeper  meaning 
through  its  connection  with  the  principle  of 
personal  self-realisation.  With  the  thought 
of  personality  in  the  background  we  now 
proceed  to  examine  the  general  relation  of 
activity  to  mental  development.  The  neces- 
sity of  pupil-activity  in  education  has  attained 
crystalline  expression  in  two  maxims  or  mot- 
toes: "No  impression  without  expression," 
and  "Learn  by  doing."  The  first  of  these 
maxims  means  that  everything  received  by 
the   pupil    from   teacher   or   text-book   must 

^  For    a    discussion    of    the    social    aspect    of   religious 
education,  see  Chapter  XXII. 


EDUCATION  AS  DEVELOPMENT  OF  PERSONS  123 

be  expressed  by  the  pupil  before  it  can 
become  a  vital  possession.  We  do  not  really 
learn  anything  until  we  express  it  in 
word  or  act.  We  do  not  first  learn  it 
and  then  express  it,  but  the  expression  is  itself 
a  part  of  the  process  of  acquisition.  Impres- 
sion without  expression  leaves  the  mind  at 
best  in  a  state  of  apparent  but  unreal  illu- 
mination. Anyone  can  observe  this  in  himself. 
How  often  do  we  fancy  that  we  have  grasped 
a  subject,  only  to  find  the  merest  ghosts  of 
ideas  in  our  mind  when  we  try  to  tell  what 
we  suppose  we  know  or  believe.  How  many 
times,  too,  have  we  seen  our  subject  develop 
and  grow  clear  in  the  act  of  talking  or  writing 
about  it.  How  much  more  so  is  it  with 
children,  whose  resources  are  so  much  less 
than  ours.  Impression  must  pass  promptly 
over  into  expression,  or  become  powerless  and 
meaningless.  The  very  little  child  must  tell 
the  story  in  his  own  words,  or  act  it  out ;  older 
children  must  recite  the  lesson,  or  write  a 
composition,  or  draw  a  map  or  picture,  or 
work  out  a  problem,  or  devise  a  dramatic  rep- 
resentation. Such  modes  of  expression  are 
not  over  and  above  the  work  of  instruction, 
but  an  essential  part  of  it. 


124     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

70.  An  A    teacher    in    a    public 

Illustration.  ,       ,  ■      j^        ,-         ■, 

school  was  instructing  her 

pupils  in  the  history  of  our  country.  The 
lesson  for  the  day  was  the  landing  of  the  Pil- 
grims at  Plymouth.  The  story  was  first  told, 
and  then  the  teacher  said,  "Would  you  like 
to  play  this  story?"  The  children  assented, 
and  a  leader,  a  little  girl,  was  appointed.  She 
promptly  called  out  other  children  and  as- 
signed them  their  parts,  and  without  hint  or 
guidance  from  any  source  she  devised  and  the 
children  enacted  the  following  scene :  The 
Mayflower  was  represented  by  children  ar- 
ranged in  two  lines  like  those  of  a  ship 's  sides. 
At  bow  and  at  stern  a  child  held  a  flag.  The 
Pilgrims  were  represented  by  the  other  chil- 
dren, who  were  first  enclosed  within  the  lines 
just  referred  to,  and  later  walked  ashore  with 
due  gravity.  The  value  of  such  an  exercise 
is  manifold.  It  makes  the  story  vivid  to  the 
pupil,  gives  it  reality,  fixes  it  in  the  memory, 
and — what  is  at  least  equally  important — de- 
velops initiative  and  individuality. 

71-  "Learn  by  We    shall    see,    after    a 

while,  how  the  motto,  "No 
impression  without  expression,"  is  being  ap- 
plied in  Sunday-school  instruction.  But  first 
we  must  unfold  the  general  principle  a  little 


EDUCATION  AS  DEVELOPMENT  OP  PERSONS  125 

further.  "Learn  by  doing"  advances  us  an- 
other step.  This  maxim  means  that  an  idea 
is  best  acquired  by  doing  something  in  which 
the  idea  is  used.  Children,  as  everybody 
knows,  like  to  do  things.  Now,  the  modern 
teacher  takes  advantage  of  this  fact  by  lead- 
ing the  child  to  do  things  in  which  there  arises 
need  for  measurement  (which  involves  arith- 
metic), language  (reading  and  writing),  geo- 
graphical and  historical  knowledge,  etc.  The 
most  advanced  experiment  in  this  direction  is 
that  of  Professor  John  Dewey,  who  has  organ- 
ised a  school  in  which  the  child  is  to  be  led 
by  this  method  from  the  earliest  kindergarten 
age  to  his  entrance  to  college.^  One  purpose 
of  this  school  is  to  continue  the  natural  educa- 
tion that  is  begun  in  the  family  by  the  con- 
tact of  the  child  with  life  in  the  concrete. 
The  pupil  accordingly  engages  in  three  do- 
mestic occupations  that  are  fundamental  to 
human  well-being— the  preparation  of  food 
(cooking),  of  clothing  (spinning  and  weav- 
ing), and  of  shelter  (carpentry,  etc.).  This 
work  introduces  him  at  once  to  nature,  and 
he  acquires  some  of  the  rudiments  of  natural 
and  physical  science.  Since  it  requires  meas- 
urement, symbols,  and  records,  he  is  led  to 

*  See  John  Dewey:     The  School  and  Society  (Chicago, 
1900). 


126   EDUCATION   IN   RELIGION  AND  MORALS 

feel  the  need  of  arithmetic,  reading  and  writ- 
ing, and  he  studies  them  in  response  to  his 
own  spontaneous  interest,  and  for  the  sake  of 
their  immediate  usableness.  The  simpler 
forms  of  these  three  occupations  are  first  un- 
dertaken, then  the  more  complex.  As  this 
sequence  reproduces  the  order  of  the  develop- 
ment of  civilisation,  the  pupil  becomes  inter- 
ested in  history;  he  lives  it  through,  to  some 
extent,  in  miniature.  At  every  step  his  in- 
ventive or  creative  power  is  given  scope, 
whether  in  practical  or  artistic  form.  At 
every  step,  too,  the  work  is  co-operative,  and 
therefore  educative  of  the  social  feelings.  The 
bearing  of  this  remarkable  experiment  is  com- 
plex, yet  certain  principles  stand  out  clearly. 
For  one  thing,  the  child  is  dealing  with  real 
life,  so  that  the  ordinary  artificial  isolation  of 
the  school  from  the  home  and  from  the  world's 
work  is  avoided.  Then,  always  appealing  to 
the  pupil's  spontaneous  interest,  the  school 
arranges  the  material  and  the  occupations  so 
that  the  resulting  reactions  adjust  the  indi- 
vidual to  his  fellows,  and  to  the  knowledge, 
the  arts,  and  the  industries  by  which  society 
lives.  The  point  for  our  especial  attention, 
however,  is  the  radical  way  in  which  the  prin- 
ciple of  learning  by  doing  is  applied.    Just  as 


EDUCATION  AS  DEVELOPMENT  OF  PERSONS  127 

the  race  has  come  by  its  knowledge  primarily 
through  doing  the  things  necessary  for  pre- 
serving life  and  attaining  life's  chosen  ends, 
so  the  child  is  to  be  instructed  by  doing  the 
things  in  which  he,  too,  is  really  interested. 

72.  The  Sensori-  The  necessity  for  educa- 

tion through  the  pupil's  ac- 
tivity is  grounded  in  our  nervous  and  mental 
structure.  Looked  at  broadly,  the  work  of 
mind  consists  in  transforming  impressions 
into  acts.  The  nervous  mechanism  involved 
in  this  process  is  technically  described  as  the 
"sensori-motor  arc."  The  chief  parts  of  our 
nervous  system  are  three :  sensory  nerves, 
which  conduct  sense-stimulus  to  the  brain; 
the  brain  itself,  which  serves  as  a  sort  of  cen- 
tral telephone  exchange  for  putting  one 
part  of  the  organism  into  touch  with  other 
parts;  and  the  motor  nerves,  which  conduct 
the  stimulus  of  motion  to  the  muscles  and 
cause  them  to  contract.  Similarly,  our  typical 
conscious  states  are  first,  impressions  of  sense ; 
second,  our  thoughts  and  emotions ;  and,  third, 
our  volitions  and  impulses  to  action.  At  first 
sight  we  fancy  that  these  three  come  in  serial 
order,  first  impression,  then  thought,  then 
action ;  but  this  is  only  half  the  truth.  For, 
while  thought  may  be  deliberate,  and  action 


128     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

may  be  postponed  to  await  the  conclusion  of 
reflection,  nevertheless  no  one  of  these  proc- 
esses ever  takes  place  entirely  by  itself.  A 
complete  mental  state  involves  all  three 
aspects  of  mind.  With  every  impression 
there  goes  at  least  a  nascent  act.  At  the  very 
least  there  are  changes  in  the  circulation  and 
the  breathing,  and  even  our  voluntary  muscles 
contract  and  relax  in  greater  or  less  degree 
with  the  changing  shades  of  mental  impres- 
sion. Anyone  can  easily  prove  this  to  himself 
by  occasionally  taking  note  of  the  state  of  the 
physical  organism  when  the  mind  appears  to 
be  merely  receiving  impressions,  as  in  listen- 
ing to  a  story,  looking  at  a  landscape,  etc. 
The  point  of  all  this,  as  far  as  education  is 
concerned,  is  that  a  mental  state  is  never  com- 
plete until  it  has  adequate  expression,  or  until 
act  balances  impression.  Whatever  clogs  the 
active  or  expressive  channels  clogs  the  whole 
flow  of  mental  energy.  The  result  of  inad- 
equate expression  is  unclearness,  misunder- 
standing, forgetfulness,  or  possibly  a  super- 
ficial conceit  of  knowledge. 
73.  Neglect  of  This  principle  holds   for 

Roligtous*"  '"  adults  as  well  as  for  chil- 

Training.  dren,  and  neglect  of  it  ac- 

counts for  many  a  failure, 


EDUCATION  AS  DEVELOPMENT  OF  PERSONS  129 

complete  or  partial,  in  religious  work. 
Preaching,  for  example,  is  often  weak,  in  spite 
of  both  intelligence  and  earnestness,  because 
it  fails  to  reveal  a  direct  way  for  the  hearers 
actively  to  apply  the  truth  they  hear.  An 
effective  sermon  is  not  necessarily  the  same 
as  an  affecting  one.  The  pew  must  talk  and 
act  before  the  impression  made  by  the  pulpit 
can  be  a  really  vital  matter,  and  the  talking 
and  acting,  let  it  be  remembered,  are  not  mere 
consequences  of  having  the  truth,  but  also  a 
part  of  the  process  of  getting  hold  of  it.  "If 
any  man  will  to  do  .  .  .  he  shall  know. ' '  If 
this  be  true  of  church  work  with  adults,  how 
much  more  does  it  apply  to  work  with 
children?  Adults  have  many  modes  of  self- 
expression,  some  of  which  are  indirect,  and 
many  of  which  can  be  postponed  to  a  greater 
or  less  extent.  But  a  child  must  express  him- 
self at  once  and  directly,  or  the  impression 
fades  beyond  effective  recovery. 

In  many  cases  church  methods  with  the 
young  are  very  little  more  than  a  weakened 
form  of  preaching.  They  ignore  the  necessity 
of  active  expression.  This  is  one  of  the  reasons 
why  biblical  facts  and  spiritual  truths  remain 
so  external  to  many  pupils  of  the  Sunday 
school.  Biblical  history  that  is  gone  over  and 


130     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION    AND   MORALS 

over  in  the  class  is  forgotten,  and  the  child 
reaches  maturity  shockingly  ignorant  of  the 
simplest  facts.  One  ignorant  saint  who  puts 
the  Bible  to  daily  use,  and  so  expresses  his 
impressions,  learns  more  of  the  Scriptures 
in  a  year  than  many  a  bright  Sunday- 
school  pupil  learns  in  a  double  seven  year 
cycle.  The  same  principle  applies  to  the 
"applications"  or  "lessons"  to  be  gathered 
from  the  biblical  material.  Many  teachers 
fancy  that  their  most  important  duty  is 
to  tell  the  class  just  what  moral  or  spiritual 
lesson  can  be  learned  from  the  passage  under 
consideration.  But  if  a  teacher  stops  here  he 
is  likely  to  do  more  harm  than  good.  A  reli- 
gious impression  that  does  not  secure  expres- 
sion is  worse  than  no  impression  at  all.  For 
it  remains  external,  it  seems  unreal,  and  the 
repetition  of  such  religious  impressions  leads 
finally  to  a  habit  of  regarding  religion  itself 
as  external  and  unrelated  to  one's  real  life. 

74.  Not  only  Let  US  now  see  the  bear- 

Activity,  but  .  <!     m   .1  • 

^1^^  P^g  mg  of  all  this  upon  person- 

Self-Activity.  ality,  an  idea  which  for  the 

moment  has  been  kept  in  the 
background.  We  have  seen  that  the  child 
should  express  whatever  he  is  set  to  learn, 
and  that  this  expression  takes  place  most  nor- 


EDUCATION  AS  DEVELOPMENT  OF  TERSONS  131 

mally  when  the  facts  or  truths  to  be  mastered 
occur  to  him  as  essential  parts  of  some  active 
work  in  which  he  is  spontaneously  interested. 
A  third  and  deeper  aspect  of  the  case  is  that 
the  pupil  here  takes  the  initiative  and  in  the 
outcome  expresses  not  merely  the  fact  or  truth 
that  he  is  learning,  but  also  himself.  Pesta- 
lozzi  laid  the  stress  upon  activity,  but  Froebel 
upon  self-activity.^  That  is,  the  child  enters 
upon  a  given  educational  activity  because  of 
his  own  interest  in  that  activity.  In  a  sense, 
he  freely  initiates  and  carries  forward  his  own 
education.  While  the  teacher  chooses  for  him 
by  providing  certain  kinds  of  material  for 
self-expression  rather  than  others,  the  child 
also  chooses  for  himself  because  he  is  inter- 
ested in  that  material.  His  reactions  upon  it 
constitute  his  own  free  self-expression.  He 
not  merely  learns  something,  he  also  progres- 
sively discovers  himself.  If  it  were  possible 
for  him  to  put  this  aspect  of  his  experience 
into  words,  he  might  say:  "I  discover  that, 
to  live  my  very  own  life,  I  must  say  'I  am,' 
not  'I  is';  that  I  must  be  able  to  know  how 
much  one-third  of  one-half  is;  that  I  must 
know  the  boundaries  of  my  town,  my  county, 
my  state ;  that  I  must  realise  where  my  food 

'•■  J.   L.   Hughes :      Froebel's   Educational   Laws   for  all 
Teachers  (New  York,  1899),  Chapters  IX  and  X. 


132     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

comes  from,  how  my  ancestors  attained  civi- 
lised life  and  conquered  their  liberty.  All 
these  things  belong  to  me,  and  I  should  be  less 
myself  without  them. ' ' 

75.  Freedom  in  This  is  the  great  principle 

Education.  ^     <?        3  •  i         ^. 

01    ireedom    m    education. 

The  child  is  not  to  be  forced  into  any  pre- 
arranged mold.  He  is  not  merely  to  imitate. 
He  is  not  merely  to  assimilate  food.  He  is 
rather  to  attain  to  selfhood  by  a  series  of 
spontaneously  initiated  activities  that  lead  to 
a  progressive  series  of  self-discoveries.  The 
movement  for  freedom  in  education  is  prac- 
tically parallel  with  the  modern  movement  for 
popular  government.  The  two  reforms  are, 
in  fact,  parts  of  one  effort  of  the  human  spirit. 
When  the  movement  for  American  indepen- 
dence and  for  popular  government  in  France 
was  organising  itself,  the  pedagogical  reform 
was  also  setting  in.  The  century  of  our  po- 
litical liberty  is  also  the  century  in  which  the 
child  has  been  emancipated  from  repressive 
school  methods.  Many  men  now  living  have 
witnessed  a  large  part  of  this  peaceful  revolu- 
tion. They  can  recall  a  time  when  both  the 
instruction  and  the  discipline  in  the  ordinary 
school  were  full  of  restraint  and  compulsion 
intended  to  mold  the  child  to  the  teacher's 


feDDCATION  AS  DEVELOPMENT  OF  PERSONS   133 

ideas.  In  the  well  managed  school  of  to-day, 
if  any  child  does  not  learn,  if  he  is  restless  or 
refractory,  the  teacher,  instead  of  concocting 
schemes  for  more  effective  compulsion,  asks 
himself  wherein  he  has  failed  to  understand 
the  child  and  adapt  the  school  work  to  him. 

The  kindergarten  has  been  not  only  the  most 
complete  expression  of  this  idea,  but  also  the 
leader  of  all  other  branches  of  general  educa- 
tion. It  has  stood  as  protector  of  the  joyous 
spontaneity  of  childhood.  It  has  steadily 
asserted  that  when  the  child  comes  into  the 
schoolroom  he  should  not  be  expected  to  lay 
aside  the  freedom  of  his  home  life  and  his 
plays.  He  should  continue  freely  to  express 
himself,  and  the  school  should  find  its  mission 
in  providing  means  for  fuller  and  richer  and 
freer  self-expression.  From  the  kindergarten 
this  idea  has  spread  upward  through  the 
whole  school  organism  even  to  the  college. 
The  elective  system  of  studies  has  been 
adopted  by  the  colleges  and  is  being  adopted 
by  the  high  schools  largely  in  response  to  this 
principle.  School  discipline  has  become 
largely  a  matter  of  student  self-government. 
As  a  consequence,  school  work  has  become 
more  joyous  and  discipline  easier. 

Now,  joy  in  work  leads  to  harder  work  and 


134     EDUCATION   IN   RELIGION  AND  MORALS 

larger  results.  Two  or  three  generations  ago 
most  teachers  would  probably  have  denied  the 
proposition  that  pupils  like  hard  work.  To- 
day thoughtful  teachers  M'ould  make  a  dis- 
tinction :  children  and  youths  like  hard  work 
that  is  self-expressive,  but  they  still  dislike 
the  task  that  has  no  personal  meaning  for 
them.  Children  are  not  naturally  lazy.  Quite 
the  contrary.  For  behold  the  wealth  of  physi- 
cal and  mental  energy  that  they  put  into 
games  and  the  solving  of  puzzles.  It  is  utterly 
natural  for  the  young  to  work  hard,  and  to 
gain  thereby  physical  and  mental  ruggedness, 
vigor,  power  of  application.  Every  healthy 
child  or  youth  is  a  storage  battery  of  power 
that  merely  waits  for  opportunity  to  discharge 
itself.  Any  pupil  who  is  not  habitually  atten- 
tive and  interested  should  be  assumed  to  be 
either  defective  in  body  or  mind,  or  else  suf- 
fering the  results  of  defective  method, 

76.  Interest  of  The   interest   of   religion 

Religion  and  ,  i     •      ^i  •      •    i 

Morals  in  this         ^^^^  morals  in  the  principle 

Principle.  of  freedom  in  education  is 

greater,  if  possible,  than 
that  of  so-called  secular  education.  For  reli- 
gion and  morals  have  primary  reference  to  the 
free  personality  as  such.  Their  aim  is  to 
induce  men  freely  to  choose  the  good,  nay, 


EDUCATION  AS  DEVELOPMENT  OF  PERSONS  135 

they  aim  even  to  make  men  like  the  good  and 
find  their  freedom  and  self-realisation  therein. 
Religious  and  moral  education,  accordingly, 
cannot  be  anything  less  than  the  progressive 
attainment  of  freedom  through  the  exercise 
of  freedom;  and  its  method  can  be  nothing 
less  than  placing  the  child  in  a  series  of  such 
concrete  situations  as  shall  reveal  him  to  him- 
self as  really  interested  in  the  good  and  self- 
enlisted  on  its  side.  This  involves  growing 
knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  a  developing 
spiritual  appreciation,  and  training  of  the 
will.  It  is  not  instruction  alone ;  it  is  not  habit 
alone ;  it  is  not  merely  instruction  plus  habit ; 
it  is  also  the  personal  sense  of  reality,  of  dis- 
covering one 's  very  own  life.  This  is  true  not 
only  of  the  ethical  side  of  religion,  but  also 
of  the  sacred  experiences  in  which  the  soul 
realises  the  presence  of  God.  Here,  too,  is 
freedom  and  the  highest  joy,  and  the  road 
thereto  is  likewise  that  of  free  self-expression. 


CHAPTER  IX 


PUNISHMENT  AND  PLAY 


77.  Necessary  The  present  chapter  will 

Limits  of  .  *^  .„ 

Freedom.  "^  ^n  attempt  to  illustrate 

and  apply  the  principle  of 
free  self-expression  by  reference  to  the  two 
extremes,  play  and  punishment.  The  former 
appears  at  first  sight  to  correspond  most 
closely  to  the  idea  of  free  self-expression,  yet 
to  have  little  educational  value,  while  the 
latter  appears  to  contradict  the  principle  of 
free  self-expression,  yet  to  be  essential  to 
training  of  the  moral  will.  We  will  begin 
with  punishment.  This  does,  indeed,  stand 
for  a  limitation  upon  freedom,  but  upon  re- 
flection we  perceive  that  freedom  must,  in  any 
case,  be  limited.  Every  boy,  for  example, 
wishes  to  play  with  powder  and  fire-arms. 
Now,  here  is  a  situation  in  which,  in  general, 
freedom  cannot  be  and  remain  unlimited. 
For,  if  the  parent  does  not  say  "No,"  the  ex- 
plosives themselves  will  say  it  by  injuring 
the  boy  and  curtailing  his  power.  This  is  a 
typical  case.  Unrestrained  freedom  destroys 
freedom,  and  conversely  the  most  complete 


PUNISHMENT  AND  PLAY  137 

freedom  is  self-limiting.  In  the  case  of  fire- 
arms the  most  complete  freedom  is  that  of  an 
adult  who,  in  view  of  the  nature  of  explos- 
ives, voluntarily  restrains  or  sets  rules  to  him- 
self. 

Free  self-expression,  then,  includes  self- 
restraint.  Now,  the  problem  with  regard  to 
punishment  of  the  young  is  simply  whether 
punishments  inflicted  against  the  will  of  the 
child  may  nevertheless  constitute  to  the  child 
his  own  self-expression  in  the  way  of  self- 
limitation.  We  know  that  mere  habits  can  be 
formed  under  the  influence  of  prospective  or 
actual  chastisement,  and  that,  to  this  extent, 
the  rod  may  help  to  form  the  character.  But, 
unless  in  and  through  the  chastisement  the 
child  discovers  himself,  the  value  of  the  habits 
thus  formed  may  be  seriously  doubted.  The 
practical  aim  must  be  to  make  all  punish- 
ments self -punishments,  all  restraints  self- 
restraints. 

78.  Common  Children     are     punished 

Mistakes  as  to  ■,  „,  ,   ,  , 

Punishment.  l^ss  oiten  and  less  severely 

than  formerly.  This  is  due 
in  part  to  increasing  emphasis  upon  the 
milder  aspects  of  Christianity,  in  part 
to  the  movement  for  freedom  in  educa- 
tion,  and   in   part,   perhaps,   to   simple   dis- 


1 


138     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

inclination  to  take  up  a  problem  of  so  great 
delicacy.  In  the  main  this  change  in  the  lot 
of  childhood  is  probably  for  the  better.  Yet 
no  one  will  deny  that  chastisement  is  often 
inflicted  unwisely,  or  that  it  is  often  omitted 
where  it  is  most  needed.  There  is  ground  for 
suspecting  that  few  parents  have  any  clear 
notion,  and  fewer  still  any  sound  one,  of  the 
relation  of  punishment  to  character  building. 
Penalties  are  inflicted  for  the  sake  of  some 
slight  immediate  end,  such  as  quiet  in  the 
household,  or  even  as  an  act  of  resentment. 
Punishment  is  frequently  omitted  altogether 
for  the  sake  of  avoiding  disturbance,  or  be- 
cause a  parent  fears  to  create  a  situation 
that  he  may  not  be  able  to  control.  It  will  not 
be  out  of  place,  then,  to  state  a  few  maxims 
which  grow  directly  out  of  the  fact  that  our 
supreme  duty  to  the  young  is  to  assist  their 
development  as  persons. 

That  punishment  should  never  be  inflicted 
upon  children  by  an  angry  person,  or  be- 
cause of  anger,  resentment,  or  irritation  of 
any  kind,  is  almost  self-evident.  Whenever 
it  is  inflicted  it  should  be  as  deliberate  and 
well  reasoned  as  an  important  business  con- 
tract, and  it  should  be  administered  as  a  duty 
that  may  not  be  put  aside.    Further;,  it  should 


PUNISHMENT  AND  PLAY  139 

have  a  definite  good  end  in  view;  it  should 
look  to  the  future,  not  merely  to  the  past. 
Whatever  be  our  conceptions  of  divine  pun- 
ishments or  of  state  punishments,  certainly  in 
the  case  of  children  mere  retaliation,  the  mere 
vindication  of  broken  law,  and  the  mere  asser- 
tion of  authority  or  of  abstract  justice  are  out 
of  place.  The  essential  question  is,  What 
effect  will  the  proposed  treatment  of  the  child 
have  upon  his  own  development?  This  ques- 
tion cannot  be  answered  without  considering 
the  effect  upon  the  spirit  as  well  as  the  out- 
ward conduct.  To  punish  wisely  is  to  punish 
the  inmost  self  so  that  life  shall  issue  out  of 
it. 

79.  Punishment  Punishment  is  educative 

as  Self-  .  ,.  .i         J. 

Expression.  1^   proportion    as    the    dis- 

comfort of  it  seems  to  the 
child  to  be  a  genuine  expression  of  what  he 
himself  is  or  does,  so  that  desire  awakens  to 
overcome  the  present  self  and  rise  to  a  higher 
one.  It  is  not  enough  to  prevent  the  doing  of 
some  things  and  secure  the  doing  of  others; 
discipline  fails  unless  it  helps  the  child  to 
desire  to  do  and  to  abstain.  Correct  disci- 
pline cultivates  the  preferences,  the  standard, 
the  sense  of  what  one  really  is.  In  a  word, 
punishment  should  be  the  self-expression  of 


140     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

a  lower  self  out  of  which  arises  the  sense  of  a 
higher  self.  To  this  end,  penalties  should  be 
natural  rather  than  artificial,  that  is,  they 
should  be  and  seem  to  be  direct  results  of  the 
child's  own  act  rather  than  impositions  of  an 
apparently  arbitrary  will.  Children  should 
not  be  shielded  too  much  from  the  painful 
consequences  of  foolish  conduct.  There  is 
educative  value  in  bruises,  cuts,  burns,  and 
even  in  scratches  and  blows  from  other  chil- 
dren. One  of  the  worst  situations  into  which 
a  child  can  be  placed  is  a  home  that  so  shields 
him  from  pain  that  he  fails  to  learn  the  fact 
of  law,  both  natural  and  social,  and  the  cor- 
relative fact  that  self-restraint  is  essential  to 
the  largest  freedom. 

Punishment  in  the  strict  sense— that  is,  as 
distinguished  from  mere  consequences  that 
occur  under  natural  law— will  have  to  do 
chiefly  with  violations  of  the  conditions  of 
social  life.  Here  is  where  arbitrariness  on  the 
part  of  parent  or  teacher  is  most  likely  to 
creep  in.  Even  rules  that  are  really  not  arbi- 
trary may  seem  so  to  the  child,  and  punish- 
ment for  infringement  of  them,  though  it  be  a 
true  copy  of  real  life,  may  seem  to  him  arti- 
ficial, unreasonable,  and  arbitrary.  This  is  a 
serious  matter.     For  whatever  seems  to  the 


PUNISHMENT  AND  TLAY  141 

child  like  mere  arbitrariness  tends  to  call 
forth  a  response  of  the  same  kind ;  in  defence 
of  his  own  sense  of  self,  he  conceals,  deceives, 
and  devises  unsocial  means  of  self-assertion. 

Rules  and  penalties,  then,  should  not  only 
not  be  arbitrary,  they  should  not  seem  to  be 
so.  This  will  involve  something  in  the  way  of 
explanation,  but  more  in  the  way  of  devising 
social  penalties  that  the  offender  shall  see  to 
be  self-imposed.  For  example,  selfishness  and 
disregard  of  established  order  tend  to  break 
up  plays  and  games ;  therefore,  in  the  interest 
of  a  game  or  play,  which  is  the  child's  own 
interest,  a  wilful  child  must  sometimes  be 
denied  a  desired  pastime.  Of  course  no  chag'- 
tisement  for  the  moment  seems  joyous,  but 
grievous.  Temporarily  the  disciplinarian 
must  oppose  the  child;  yet  the  nature  of  the 
violated  rule,  the  nature  of  the  penalty,  and 
the  personal  attitude  in  the  administration 
thereof  should  all  be  such  that  the  child 
quickly  realises  that  his  deeper  will  is  in  har- 
mony with  the  hand  that  chastises.  A  little 
boy  by  his  play  in  the  family  living  room  had 
endangered  a  lighted  lamp.  He  was  repeat- 
edly warned,  but  the  play  impulse  overcame 
him,  he  forgot,  and  soon  the  lamp  was  over- 
turned.    Thereupon  one  of  the  parents,  ex- 


142     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

plaining  to  the  little  boy  the  dangers  of  a  poor 
memory,  and  pointing  out  that  the  little  boy's 
own  memory  needed  external  help,  adminis- 
tered sharp  corporeal  punishment.  It  was 
for  the  sake  of  the  future,  not  of  the  past;  it 
represented  a  necessary  order  of  things  rather 
than  an  arbitrary  will ;  it  became  to  the  child- 
consciousness  at  once  an  expression  of  his 
imperfect  self  and  a  means  of  helping  him  to 
realise  a  higher  selfhood.^ 

80.  Educational  Let  US  tum  now  to  the 

Value  of   Play.  .  -^        /.  •  i 

extreme  opposite  oi  punish- 
ment, the  unrestrained  freedom  of  play.  Al- 
cuin  (died  804),  who  is  usually  regarded  as 
the  father  of  mediaeval  education,  looked  upon 
play  as  frivolous  and  worthy  only  of  being 
discouraged  or  suppressed.  In  this  he  was  fol- 
lowed by  various  educators.  Until  compara- 
tively recent  times,  even  those  who  have  not 
condemned  plays  and  games  have  neverthe- 
less looked  upon  them  as  essentially  useless, 
or  at  best  as  a  relatively  harmless  way  of  oc- 
cupying children  who  are  too  young  to  be 
doing  anything  useful.  All  this  is  now  re- 
versed.    The  plays  of  the  young,  since  they 

»  See  Elizabeth  Harrison  :  A  Study  of  Child  Nature 
(Chicago  Kindergarten  College,  1902),  and  Herbert  Spen- 
cer: Education:  Intellectual,  Moral,  and  Physical  (New 
Yorl£,  1872). 


PUNISHMENT  AND  PLAY  143 

reveal  the  spontaneous  interests,  have  become 
a  clue  to  educational  problems;  and  since 
spontaneous  interest  has  become  the  leverage 
of  the  teacher  in  the  education  of  the  child, 
the  conscious  effort  of  teachers  has  been  to 
make  the  work  of  the  schoolroom  somewhat 
like  the  work  of  the  playground.  There  is  no 
absolute  dividing  line  between  the  two  kinds 
of  work.  Nor  is  this  all.  For  play  itself 
turns  out  to  be  a  first-class  educational  pro- 
cess. The  play  instinct  is  nature's  way,  and 
so  God's  way,  of  deveyoping  body,  mind  and 
character.  Quickness  and  accuracy  of  per- 
ception; co-ordination  of  the  muscles,  which 
puts  the  body  at  the  prompt  service  of  the 
mind ;  rapidity  of  thought ;  accuracy  of  judg- 
ment; promptness  of  decision;  self-control; 
respect  for  others;  the  habit  of  co-operation; 
self-sacrifice  for  the  good  of  a  group— all 
these  products  of  true  education  are  called 
out  in  plays  and  games.  Further,  the  play 
instinct  varies  with  the  different  species  and 
with  the  two  sexes,  so  that  its  specific  forms 
prepare  the  individual  for  his  specific  func- 
tions. The  plays  of  a  lamb  prepare  for  the 
activities  of  a  grazing  animal;  those  of  a 
lion's  whelp  foretell  the  pursuit  and  killing 
of  prey.     The  plays  of  a  girl  look  forward  to 


144     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 


motherhood;   those   of  a   boy   to  protecting, 
building,  acquiring.     In  short,  play  is  a  part 
of  nature 's  school. 
81.  Relation  of  The  relation  of  play  to 

Play    to    Religious  ...  i  ,•  i 

Education.  religious      education       de- 

mands a  specific  word.  Just 
as  the  gap  between  the  school  and  play  is  be- 
ing filled  up,  so  the  home  and  the  church 
should  now  at  last  awake  to  the  divine  sig- 
nificance of  the  play  instinct  and  make  use 
of  it  for  the  purpose  of  developing  the  spirit- 
ual nature.  The  opposition  between  the  play 
spirit  and  the  religious  spirit  is  not  real  but 
only  fancied;  just  as  that  between  play  and 
schooling  in  general.  Through  our  ignorance 
we  have  put  asunder  that  which  God  hath 
joined  together.  Here  is  the  secret  of  much 
of  our  lack  of  power  with  young  people.  We 
teach  children  to  think  of  their  most  free  and 
spontaneous  activities,  their  plays,  as  having 
no  affinity  for  religion,  and  then  we  wonder 
why  religion  does  not  seem  more  attractive  to 
them  as  they  grow  toward  maturity!  We 
mask  the  joy  and  freedom  of  religion  by  our 
long  faces,  our  perfunctory  devotions,  our 
whispers  and  reticences,  and  then  we  find  it 
strange  that  young  people  are  so  inordinately 
fond  of  worldly  pleasures!     As  late  as  the 


PUNISHMENT  AND  PLAY  14^ 

year  1900  a  prominent  Sunday-school  leader 
insisted  upon  keeping  up  this  paralysing  dis- 
tinction. "It  is  wrong,"  he  said,  "to  talk 
about  the  kindergarten  of  the  Bible  school. 
"Wise  primary  workers  are  averse  to  turning 
any  part  of  the  Bible  school  into  a  kinder- 
garten because  the  thought  of  play  should  be 
kept  for  places  other  than  God's  house,  and 
for  times  other  than  the  Lord's  day.  The 
little  ones  should  be  taught  reverence  very 
early  in  life."  As  long  as  such  notions  pre- 
vail, we  should  expect  children  to  exclude 
God  from  their  plays,  think  of  religion  as 
unnatural,  and  either  grow  up  indifferent  to 
religion  or  else  reserve  their  reverence  for  the 
Lord's  day  and  the  Lord's  house.  Unless  we 
discover  the  unity  of  play  with  education  in 
religion  as  well  as  with  so-called  secular  edu- 
cation, we  shall  never  secure  control  of  the 
whole  child  or  the  whole  youth  for  Christ. 
82.  The  Christian  The  practical  problem  is, 
Pla^y.^"*^  ^  '°"  °  i^  part,  to  extend  the 
Christian  spirit  through  all 
the  games  and  plays  of  childhood  and  youth, 
and  the  play  spirit  through  the  instrumental- 
ities of  religious  education,  so  that  the  whole 
life  shall  be  lived  as  in  the  sight  of  God  and 
in  friendship  with  Christ.    If  the  thought  of 


146     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

God  or  of  Christ  chills  the  joy  of  games  and 
plays,  that  merely  proves  that  we  have  mis- 
interpreted the  divine  to  children.  A  child 
who  cannot  freely  unbend  in  the  presence  of 
his  earthly  father  or  an  elder  brother  is  a 
witness  against  such  a  father  or  such  a 
brother.  There  is  imperfectly  revealed 
fatherhood,  and  imperfectly  revealed  brother- 
hood. The  fact  that  we  have  so  represented 
the  Heavenly  Father  and  the  great  Elder 
Brother  of  us  all  shows  how  slow  of  heart  we 
have  been,  how  slightly  we  have  grasped  the 
principle  of  incarnation.  God  in  Christ 
means  God  in  childhood  as  well  as  in  man- 
hood; God  in  childhood's  plays,  therefore, 
as  truly  as  in  manhood's  labor  and  worship. 
In  fact,  the  freedom  of  play  is  a  normal  ele- 
ment of  life  and  a  normal  attitude  toward 
life  for  adults  as  well  as  children.  Bushnell 
says :  ' '  Play  is  the  symbol  and  interpreter  of 
liberty,  that  is,  Christian  liberty.  *  *  * 
Play  wants  no  motive  but  play;  and  so  true 
goodness,  when  it  is  ripe  in  the  soul  and  is 
become  a  complete  inspiration  there,  will  ask 
no  motive  but  to  be  good.  Therefore  God  has 
purposely  set  the  beginning  of  the  natural 
life  in  a  mood  that  foreshadows  the  last  and 
highest  chapter  of  immortal  character. ' '  Thus 


PUNISHMENT  AND  PLAY  147 

play  becomes  "  a  natural  interpreter  of  what 
is  highest  and  last  in  the  grand  problem  of 
our  life  itself. ' '  ^ 

Holding  this  view  of  play,  we  should  strive, 
not  to  make  children  like  playless  adults,  but 
to  make  adults  like  playful  children. 
Throughout  education  the  play  attitude  of 
mind  should  be  preserved  as  far  as  possible. 
After  all,  is  it  not  right  jolly  to  learn  things, 
to  have  an  occupation,  to  do  something  worth 
while  ?  Is  it  not  fun  to  do  right  ?  True,  there 
are  unavoidable  crosses;  there  is  weakness 
where  we  w^ould  have  strength ;  there  is  wait- 
ing when  we  wish  to  act,  action  when  we 
wish  to  rest;  there  are  deprivation  and  sor- 
row, and  always  the  demand  for  self-sacrifice. 
Yet  Jesus  made  no  mistake  when  he  called 
the  yoke  easy  and  the  burden  light,  and  Paul 
was  right  when  he  called  the  law  of  Christ  a 
law  of  liberty.  For  children  and  adults  alike 
Christ  is  the  great  emancipator,  the  great  re- 
storer of  the  play  spirit.  Through  him  there 
is  rejoicing,  even  in  tribulation ;  through  him 
the  meanest  duty  becomes  a  divine  mission ; 
through  him  the  human  being  for  the  first 
time  clearly  realises  that  he  is  a  child  of  God, 
with  a  child's  prerogatives.     Why,  then,  are 

'Horace    Bushnell  :      Christian    Nurture    (New    York: 
Scribners),  Part  II,  Ch.  VI,  pages  339  f. 


148     EDUCATION   IN   RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

we  SO  sober  in  our  daily  occupations,  so  un- 
able to  relax  into  the  childlike  state  of  mind  ? 
Because  we  think  too  meanly  of  our  life;  be- 
cause of  our  narrow  self-consciousness;  be- 
cause the  larger  self  is  denied  a  chance  for 
full  utterance.  If  we  would  enter  into  the 
fulness  of  life  we  must  become  as  little  chil- 
dren, and  we  must  remain  so.  Applying  this 
principle  to  the  education  of  children,  we 
should  strive  to  prevent  even  the  semblance'^ 
of  a  break  between  the  playground,  the  fam- 
ily altar,  and  the  church. 

83.  Christ  as  This  will  necessitate  such 

Master  of  the  .   .  „        i  -i  i         ? 

Playground.  supervision     of     children  s 

plays  as  will  make  Christ 
the  master  of  the  playground— the  master,  not 
the  spy  or  the  oppressor;  the  promoter,  not 
the  opponent  of  play.  What  a  shame  it  is 
that  he  has  been  represented  to  children  as 
mere  restraint,  a  mere  "don't,"  a  negation, 
whereas  he  is  come  that  children  may  have 
their  own  life  and  that  they  may  have  it 
abundantly.  That  means  play,  with  its  fun, 
its  noise,  its  contests.  The  more  of  Christ 
there  is  in  play,  the  more  fun  there  is;  for 
the  things  that  Christ  forbids,  which  center 
in  undue  self-love,  are  the  very  things  that  de- 
stroy play,   while   the   things  that   he   com- 


PtJNISHMENT  AND  PLAY  14d 

mands,  which  center  in  social  or  group  ac- 
tivities, are  the  very  things  that  keep  play 
going  at  its  highest.  This  does  not  mean  that 
Christ  would  have  goody-goody  boys  and 
girls.  Boisterousness,  struggle,  conquest,  the 
taking  of  risks  and  the  facing  of  danger — all 
these  are  at  some  time  proper  and  truly 
Christian.  We  must  always  remember  that 
"is"  and  "is  not"  are  not  the  only  alterna- 
tives; there  is  also  "becoming."  The  essen- 
tial question  is  never,  Does  this  child  fulfil 
the  law  of  love?  but  rather,  Is  he  advancing 
normally  toward  a  mature  realisation  and 
fulfilment  of  it  ? 

The  normal  way  for  children  to  make  this 
advance  is  to  live  out  their  childish  selves  in 
association  with  one  another.  They  are  to 
live,  but  they  are  also  to  live  together.  Their 
contests,  even  their  quarrels,  are  of  value. 
Quarrels  among  children  are  not  to  be  in- 
terpreted as  signs  of  a  fall  from  virtue,  but 
rather  as  thorns  with  which  the  child  pricks 
himself  in  his  efforts  to  pluck  the  rose  of 
normal  social  existence.  Childhood  quarrels 
provide  one  with  a  set  of  experiences  that  en- 
able one  to  avoid  quarreling  later  in  life. 
When  growTi  persons  indulge  wrath  and 
envy  and  backbiting  and  clamoring,  they  de- 


150     EDUCATION   IN   RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

scend  from  a  plane  that  the  child  has  not  yet 
reached,  a  plane  that  his  early  social  experi- 
ence helps  him  to  reach. 

Thus  an  act  which  in  an  adult  is  bad  is  not 
necessarily  so  in  a  child.  Christ  comes  to 
children's  quarrels,  not  to  condemn  them,  but 
so  to  illuminate  them  as  to  make  them  self- 
rebuking  and  self-annihilating.  To  suppress 
them  by  mere  power  is  to  sacrifice  develop- 
ment. They  are  essentially  self-destroying, 
and  this  is  the  very  lesson  that  the  child 
learns  from  them.  The  same  may  be  said  of 
children's  anger.  It  is  a  stage  of  undevel- 
oped life.  Anger  must  be  experienced  before 
character  can  become  rugged.  He  who  knows 
not  anger  knows  not  how  to  fight  the  wrong. 
So,  also,  of  childhood  greed  and  self-assertive- 
ness.  These  impulses,  if  allowed  to  grow 
without  check,  become  in  time  an  evil  char- 
acter. But  they  should  develop  into  strength 
of  personality,  power  of  resistance,  power  to 
do  and  to  win  in  worthy  causes.  To  make 
Christ  master  of  the  playground,  then,  means 
such  wise  and  subtle  supervision  of  play  as 
helps  childhood  impulses  gradually  to  inter- 
pret themselves  through  their  own  expression 
into  the  Christian  philosophy  of  life. 


CHAPTER  X 

REALITY  AND  SYMBOL  AS  MEANS  OF  EDUCATION 

84.  The  Divine  Iq    our   discUSSion   of   ap- 

Method   of  ,.  J       p        li. 

Educating  the  perception   and   of   self-ac- 

f^^c^-  tivity  we  caught  a  glimpse 

of  some  practical  applica- 
tions of  a  principle,  already  formulated  in 
Chapter  VI,  concerning  the  superior  educa- 
tional value  of  concrete  realities  and  actual 
experiences  as  compared  with  that  of  words 
or  other  symbols.  This  principle  now  de- 
mands specific  attention.  If  we  ask  ourselves 
by  what  method  the  divine  education  of  the 
race  from  savagery  to  civilisation  has  pro- 
ceeded, we  shall  be  struck  at  once  with  the 
fact  that  God  seems  to  have  hidden  himself 
behind  the  visible  and  tangible  environment  of 
human  life.  The  race  has  escaped  from  sav- 
agery through  its  own  self-activity,  namely, 
through  the  wrestlings  of  men  with  nature 
and  with  one  another.  Thus  concrete  things 
and  visible  persons  have  been  the  primary  in- 
struments of  man's  training.  Out  of  the  tus- 
sle with  wild  beasts,  with  the  rigors  of  winter, 
with  hostile  tribes,  with  all  the  conditions  of 


\-^ 


152     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

physical  existence,,  came  quickened  faculties, 
useful  customs  and  instincts,  and  a  stock  of 
experience  that  was  destined  to  unfold  into 
science,  literature,  art,  and  politics. 

This  is  the  case  with  morals  and  religion 
as  well  as  with  the  other  elements  of  civilisa- 
tion. In  neither  of  these  spheres  was  the  race 
started  into  life  equipped  with  ready-made 
ideas  or  formulas,  or  with  any  short-cut 
method  of  acquiring  them.  Moral  and  reli- 
gious ideas  and  feelings  gradually  unfolded 
themselves  through  what  seems,  from  our 
point  of  view,  like  a  haphazard,  rough  and 
tumble,  and  very  unspiritual  struggle  to  live. 
Yet  the  education  of  the  race  was  actually  be- 
ginning. Its  method  was,  first  the  sensible, 
then  the  rational ;  first  the  concrete,  then  the 
abstract ;  first  the  experience,  then  the  symbol. 
This  order  will  be  found  to  hold  at  every  stage 
of  race  education.  That  great  body  of  sym- 
bols, the  Bible,  for  example,  came  gradually 
into  existence  as  the  recorded  expression  of 
the  growing  religious  experience  or  the  chosen 
people.  It  is  not  the  source  of  that  experi- 
ence, but  a  product  of  it,  though  each  part  of 
the  Scriptures,  once  in  existence,  entered  as 
a  factor  into  the  movement  whence  it  sprung. 
Yet  the  mere  symbol,  of  whatever  kind  it  may 


REALITY   AND   SYMBOL  IN  EDUCATION       153 


be,  and  however  useful  in  communicating  the 
results  of  experience,  can  never  quite  take  the 
place  of  the  concrete  fact.  We  recognise  this 
principle  when  we  say  that  preaching,  in 
order  to  save  the  world,  must  be  backed  up  by 
genuine  Christian  living.  From  reality  to 
symbol,  then,  is  a  general  principle  of  race 
education. 

85.  From  Thing  to  It  is  also  a  basic  principle 
Symbol    is   the  •        j.i.        j        i-  a  u 

Natural    Order    of     ^^     ^^^     ducation     of     each 

the  Mind.  child.      Not    only    do    the 

senses  develop  in  advance 
of  the  reflectve  powers,  so  that  the  first 
knowledge  to  be  acquired  is  sense-knowledge, 
but  this  order  represents  a  general  principle 
of  mental  acquisition  and  growth.  Not  that 
all  realities  are  sensible  things,  but  simply 
that  realities,  as  recognised  in  some  kind  of 
experience,  come  first,  and  the  name,  the  for- 
mula, the  theory  comes  afterward.  A  baby  in 
the  act  of  exploring  one  hand  with  the  other, 
or  handling  every  possible  thing ;  a  child  who 
runs  and  jumps  and  climbs  and  tries  to  do 
whatever  he  sees  anyone  else  doing;  a  boy 
who  is  possessed  by  an  impulse  to  make  bows 
and  arrows,  or  toy  wind  mills;  a  youth  who 
begins  to  hear  the  wide  world  whispering  to 
him  of  a  wider  experience ;  a  geologist,  break- 


154     EDUCATION    IN   RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

ing  a  fragment  from  an  exposed  rock— all 
these  illustrate  the  same  great  fact.  The  baby 
is  laying  up  a  stock  of  experiences  which  by 
and  by  he  will  learn  to  name.  The  child  is 
learning  nature's  laws  by  bumping  up  against 
nature.  The  boy  is  expanding  his  insight  by 
using  upon  things  what  insight  he  already 
has.  The  youth  craves  to  get  at  the  reality 
of  life,  and  no  mere  telling  him  about  life 
will  suffice.  In  each  of  these  cases  the  symbol, 
rule,  or  theory,  when  it  comes,  will  have  force 
•and  vitality  in  proportion  to  the  felt  reality 
of  the  experience  for  which  it  stands. 

86.  Significance  The  contrast  between  the 

Laboratory  and  of  o^der  of  nature  and  tradi- 
Manual   Training.      tional  SChool  methods  is  ob- 

vious  enough.  The  tradi- 
tional school  is  an  institution  that  undertakes 
to  transfer  the  contents  of  a  text-book  to  the 
memory  of  the  pupil.  Yet  a  text-book  is  a 
lifeless,  external  thing;  it  is  not  a  god  to  be 
bowed  down  to ;  it  is  not  even  the  thing  that 
the  child  has  to  learn.  What  has  to  be 
learned  is  the  fact  or  the  truth.  The  relation 
of  a  book  to  a  fact  or  truth  is  like  that  of  a 
window  to  a  landscape.  The  window  isn't 
the  landscape;  it  doesn't  contain  the  land- 
scape ;  it  is  merely  an  opening  through  which 


REALITY  AND  SYMBOL  IN  EDUCATION       153 

we  may  look  for  ourselves.     Grammar,  arith- 
metic,  geography — these  are  not  books,   nor 
are  they  contained  in  books,  and  no  pupil  is 
really  trained  in  them  who  does  not  resort 
to  the  same  sources  as  the  book-makers  them- 
selves.    The  newer  school-ideals,  accordingly, 
aim  to  bring  the  pupil  into  immediate  touch 
with  the  very  things  that  the  text-book  talks 
about.     Hence  the  rapid  spread  of  laborato- 
ries and  manual  training.     By  such  means 
the  pupil  not  only  secures   opportunity  for 
self-activity ;     he  also     comes  at  the     symbol 
through  the  thing  symbolised.     He  comes  to 
understand  a  generalisation  by  actual  dealing 
with  some  of  the  particulars  upon  which  it 
is  based.     He  proves  few  things,  of  course, 
and  discovers  less,  but  he  becomes  acquainted 
with  the  methods  of  discovery  and  of  proof, 
and  he  acquires  some  experience  of  tj^ical 
facts  and  processes.     Laboratories  and  man- 
ual training  are  purposely  classed  together  in 
this  statement.    Naturally,  yet  unfortunately, 
the  public  has  not  discriminated  adequately 
between  industrial  training  and  manual  train- 
ing.    The  one  has  in  view  the  learning  of  a 
trade  or  art;  the  other  broad  general  educa- 
tion.    Manual  training   is  not  even,    as   its 
name  indicates,  a  training  of  the  hands  alone 


156     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

or  chiefly,  but  rather  a  training  of  the  per- 
sonality through  the  use  of  the  hands  and 
the  mind  at  the  same  time. 

87.  Incomplete  The     general     principle, 

Applications  of  •       +u    +     +u  i.   i 

the  Principle.  then,    IS    that    the    symbol 

(name,  formula,  rule, 
theory)  should  enter  only  when  the  pupil  al- 
ready needs  it  in  order  to  fix  and  formulate 
and  generalise  something  with  which  he  is 
already  at  least  partially  acquainted.  This 
principle  is  easily  misapplied.  For  example, 
the  proper  use  of  pictures  is  easily  misunder- 
stood. A  true  picture  is,  indeed,  one  degree 
nearer  concreteness  than  mere  words,  yet  pic- 
tures themselves  are  at  best  symbols.  They, 
as  well  as  words,  have  to  be  interpreted  by  the 
child's  own  experience.  "Mother,"  said  a 
little  boy,  "don't  men  ever  go  to  heaven?" 
"Why  do  you  ask?"  replied  the  mother. 
"Because,"  said  the  little  investigator,  "none 
of  the  angels  I  have  seen  pictures  of  have 
whiskers!"  It  would  be  interesting  to  know 
what  the  gaudily  colored  pictures  used  weekly 
to  illustrate  the  Sunday-school  lesson  in  pri- 
mary departments  really  mean  to  little  chil- 
dren, and  especially  how  far  they  really  illus- 
trate the  lessons. 

Another     imperfect     application     of     the 


REALITY  AND  SYMBOL  IN  EDUCATION       157 

true  principle  is  found  in  what  used  to  be 
called  "object  lessons."  For  here  the  object 
placed  before  the  child  is  commonly  not  the 
thing  that  is  to  be  studied,  but  only  a  symbol 
for  it,  and  often  a  very  remote  symbol,  too. 
In  the  teaching  of  morals,  physical  analogues 
(a  twig  for  the  pliability  of  childhood,  a  tree 
for  the  fixation  of  maturity,  etc.)  may  some- 
times be  a  helpful  addition  to  mere  words,  but 
at  the  best  they  merely  improve  our  symbols. 
Even  when  the  very  object  that  the  child  has 
to  study  is  placed  before  him,  object  teaching 
does  not  always  succeed.  When  natural  his- 
tory, for  example,  is  taught  merely  by  means 
of  museum  specimens,  the  object,  being  ex- 
hibited out  of  its  natural  setting,  and  with 
none  of  the  motion  and  "go"  of  nature,  is 
never  fully  real  to  the  pupil.  Museum  speci- 
mens, taken  by  themselves,  tend  to  become 
only  another  kind  of  symbol.  For  this  reason 
the  pupil  is  to  be  taken  into  the  field,  where 
he  beholds  the  life  and  movement  of  things, 
and  is  drawn  out  to  take  part  in  it  himself. 
Then  comes  the  need  of  the  symbol  as  a 
means  of  fixing,  recalling,  communicating 
what  he  has  done  and  experienced.  History, 
of  course,  has  to  be  learned  largely  through 
analogues   and  symbols,   yet   now   and  then 


158     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

there  is  opportunity  to  exhibit  some  object 
actually  connected  with  an  historical  event, 
and  always  our  own  institutions  stand  as  mon» 
"uments  of  the  past.  In  general,  dates,  lists  of 
kings,  and  similar  abstract  material  should 
be  withheld  until  they  acquire  meaning  from 
something  that  already  lives  in  the  imagina- 
tion. The  story,  historical  and  geographical 
pictures,  the  making  of  maps  and  diagrams, 
or  dramatic  representations,  should  come  first. 
Many  an  adult  can  recall  how  dry  and  fruit- 
less the  study  of  history  was  until  the  read- 
ing of  a  biography  or  an  historical  romance, 
a  visit  to  a  battle  field,  the  sight  of  an  old 
flint-lock  musket,  or  some  similar  event  made 
history  suddenly  a  living  and  moving  reality. 

88.  Defects  of  The    application   of    this 

the  Catechetical  .      .    ,       .  . 

Method.  principle   IS  perhaps   more 

difficult  in  the  teaching  of 
moral  and  spiritual  truth  than  anywhere  else. 
For  where  shall  the  child  experience  the  con- 
crete fact  ?  He  can  see  and  touch  many  of  the 
things  with  which  the  state  schools  deal,  but 
he  has  no  similar  sense-experience  of  God, 
or  of  Christ,  or  of  duty.  A  large  part  of  the 
task  that  will  be  undertaken  in  Part  III  con- 
sists in  attempting  to  answer  this  question. 
Meantime  we  may  well  illustrate  the  prin- 


REALITY  AND  SYMBOL  IN  EDUCATION       159 

ciple  by  one  or  two  specific  examples  drawn 
from  the  field  of  religious  education.     The 
most  obvious  one  is  the  method  of  catechetical 
The  cathechetical     instruction  of     the  early 
church  was  in  close  relation  to  reality,  for  it 
was  used  as  a  means  of  preparing  converts 
from  heathenism  for  formal  admission  into 
the  church.    The  convert  already  felt  the  new 
life  as  a  fact  of  experience;  he  then  went  on 
through  cathechetical  study  to  formulate  it 
and   try   to   understand   it.     This   was    cate- 
chetics  in  its  original  form.     The  instruction 
of  children  by  means  of  fixed  questions  and 
answers  is  an  entirely  different  thing.     For 
now  the  symbol  is  separate  from  the  thing 
symbolised,  and  an  effort  is  made  to  fill  the 
child 's  memory  with  formulas  the  meaning  of 
which  he  cannot  know  in  any  vital  way.  These 
formulas  are  expected  to  become  useful  by 
and  by.     The  mind  is  supposed  to  be  pre- 
empted   by    Christian    truth    and    fortified 
against  the  assaults  of  doubt.     But  the  mind 
is  not  really  filled  with  truth.     To  communi- 
cate truth,  as  distinguished  from  symbols,  im- 
plies assimilation  of  the  truth  through  some 
experience ;  it  implies  a  vital,  not  mechanical, 
reaction  of  the  mind.    Mere  mechanical  cate- 
chising    produces     various     results.       Some 


160     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 


pupils  merely  shed  the  shower  that  falls  upon 
them;  they  repeat  the  words  and  then  for- 
^t  them.  Others,  because  the  need  of  self- 
expression  is  ignored,  feel  themselves  re- 
pressed, and  therefore  they  become  cynical  or 
sceptical.  Still  others,  filling  their  memory 
with  forms  of  doctrine,  assume  that  they  have 
the  truth,  and  so  they  become  dogmatic  or 
priggish.  The  very  first  condition  for  the  suc- 
cess of  a  catechism  is  that  the  pupil  should 
need  a  formula  in  which  to  express  and  gen- 
eralise something  that  is  already  vital  in  his 
experience.^ 

89.  Memorising  The  memorising  of  Scrip- 

ture is  most  useful  when  it 
obeys  the  principle,  First  the  reality,  then  the 
symbol.  Forcing  upon  the  child  the  memoris- 
ing of  passages  that  lack  the  "tang"  of  reality 
to  him  may  easily  create  prejudice  against 
the  whole  Bible.  The  only  safe  plan,  and  the 
only  one  that  is  truly  educative,  is  to  see  to  it 
that  the  passage  to  be  memorised  conveys  to 
the  child  a  genuine  meaning  in  which  he  has 
an  interest  of  his  own.  Now,  one  of  the  best 
things  about  the  form  in  which  the  Bible  pre- 

*  Several  recent  catechisms  seek  to  conform  to  peda- 
gogical principles.  See  those  hy  W.  .1.  Mutch.  New 
Haven,  Conn.  ;  those  by  J.  L.  Keerty,  Lysander.  N.  Y.  : 
Doremiis  Scudder's  "Our  Children  for  Christ"  (Revein  : 
W.  E.  McLennan's  "The  Lord's  Supper  (Eaton  &  Mains). 


REALITY  AND  SYMBOL  IN  EDUCATION       161 

sents  truth  to  us  is  that  it  is  so  concrete.  It 
is  full  of  movement,  and  much  of  it  has  im- 
perishable value  simply  as  literary  art.  It 
appeals  at  once  to  the  imagination  of  a  child 
and  the  taste  of  a  man.  Further,  the  contents 
of  many  parts  of  the  Scriptures  grow  in 
meaning  as  we  ourselves  grow.  Of  course  we 
have  to  wait  for  maturity  before  we  realise 
anything  like  their  full  depth,  but  there  is 
abundant  reason  why  we  should  know  them 
as  soon  as  they  can  begin  to  be  genuine  nutri- 
ment. The  Twenty-third  Psalm  has  a  real 
and  natural  application  to  childhood's  inter- 
ests, but  the  application  grows  more  and  more 
profound  with  the  moving  years  until  old  age 
beholds  itself  descending  into  the  valley  of 
deep  darkness.  The  same  is  true  of  a  large 
proportion  of  the  Scripture  passages  that 
have  endeared  themselves  to  the  hearts  of 
men  throughout  the  ages.  They  can  be  un- 
derstood by  a  child,  though  they  cannot  be 
fully  understood  until  the  measure  of  life 
has  been  filled  to  the  brim.  Happy  the  man 
whose  memory  is  stored  with  truth  in  the 
forms  of  Biblical  phraseology,  for  he  has  con- 
stant means  of  self-expression,  and  therefore 
of  self-understanding.  The  mere  possession 
of  an  appropriate  symbol  hastens  the  recogni- 


162      EDUCATION   IN   RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

tion  of  deeper  reality.  But  tlie  symbol  must 
be  really  possessed ;  it  must  already  be  a  sym- 
bol of  something  if  its  capacity  for  symbolis- 
ing is  to  develop.  Clearly,  then,  such  pas- 
sages as  can  have  little  or  no  meaning  for  a 
child  should  not  be  forcibly  clamped  upon  his 
memory.  Fortunately,  near  the  end  of  child- 
hood and  the  beginning  of  adolescence  there 
develops  great  capacity  and  liking  for  mem- 
orising. At  this  time  no  hardship  is  felt  in 
conning  anything  that  is  significant  in  matter 
and  pleasing  in  form.  By  this  time,  too,  the 
range  of  interest  and  the  depth  of  moral  ap- 
preciation have  begun  greatly  to  increase- 
This,  then,  is  a  peculiarly  favorable  period 
for  storing  the  mind  with  the  greatest  words. 

90.  Some  Cases  Sense       before       sound ! 

might  well  be  the  motto  of 
every  parent  and  teacher  who  undertakes  to 
assist  a  child  to  memorize.  Sully  tells  of  a 
child  who  offered  the  first  petition  of  the 
Lord's  Prayer  in  the  form,  "Harold  be  thy 
name!"  Here  the  sound  is  mis-heard,  and 
consequently  sense  is  entirely  lacking.  In 
other  cases  both  sound  and  sense  are  misun- 
derstood. A  child  upon  returning  home  from 
Sunday  school  asked  his  mother,  "Mamma, 
why  should   children  bathe  their  parents?" 


REALITY  AND  SYMBOL  IN  EDUCATION       163 

Upon  inquiry  as  to  why  the  question  was 
asked,  the-  mother  was  informed  that  the 
pupils  of  the  Sunday  school  had  been  taught 
this  momentous  command  :  ' '  Children,  hathe 
your  parents  in  the  Lord,  for  this  is  right ! ' ' 
Sometimes  the  words  are  understood,  but  the 
sense  and  application  are  distorted.  Sully 
relates  that  one  child,  having  heard  the  story 
of  how  the  Good  Samaritan  poured  oil  into 
the  wounds  of  the  man  who  fell  among  thieves, 
understood  that  the  Samaritan  poured  par- 
affin over  the  poor  fellow!^  Another  little 
boy  who  had  recently  heard  the  story  of  the 
creation  of  Eve  came  to  his  mother  saying, 
"Mamma,  I'm  'fraid  I'm  going  to  have  a 
wife,  for  there's  a  drefful  pain  in  my  side!" 
If  we  could  only  know  what  meaning  the  chil- 
dren find  in  words  and  sentences,  what  a  rev- 
elation we  should  have ! 

91.  Making  the  A    notion    has    somehow 

"Application"    in  i     i  i     xi  i, 

Bible  Teaching.        grown  up,  probably  through 

unconscious  imitation  of 
preaching,  that  the  Bible  is  not  really  taught 
unless  the  "application"  is  stated.  The  bibli- 
cal passage  is  first  unfolded,  and  then,  out 
of  the  teacher's  own  mind,  or  out  of  the  mind 

*  .Tames  Sully:  Studies  of  Childhood  (New  Yorli, 
1900),  page  184.  "Harold  be  thy  name"  will  be  found 
on  p.  185. 


164     EDUCATION   IN   RELIGION  AND  MORALS 

of  some  editor  of  Sunday-school  helps,  there 
is  broiaght  forth  something  more  which  is 
supposed  to  form  a  climax.  The  aim  that  in- 
spires this  method  is  a  true  one,  namely,  the 
development  of  actual,  present  spiritual  life 
in  the  pupil.  But  is  the  method  adapted  to 
the  purpose  in  view  ?  Life  develops,  not  from 
symbol  to  experience,  but  from  experience  to 
symbol.  What  is  actually  done  in  this  proc- 
ess of  drawing  out  the  "lesson"  of  the  lesson 
is  to  increase  the  number  of  symbols  without 
increasing  the  experience  of  reality.  Gen- 
erally, too,  the  process  consists  in  following 
a  strong  symbol  by  a  weaker  one.  Why 
should  the  Bible  have  the  supreme  place  in 
the  spiritual  culture  of  the  young?  Because 
morals  and  religion  are  there  presented  better 
than  we  can  present  them  in  any  words  that 
we  can  form.  Its  strength  lies,  in  part,  in  its 
freedom  from  abstract  formulas,  its  nearness 
to  the  concrete,  its  self-revealing  application 
to  our  own  selves.  Why,  then,  should  a 
teacher  feel  called  upon  to  add  another  and 
a  weaker  symbol  to  those  of  the  sacred  writ- 
ings? 

Suppose,  for  instance,  that  a  Sunday-school 
teacher  draws  out  of  the  lesson  for  the  day 
the  proposition,  "We  should  be  kind  to  one 


SEALITT  and  symbol   in  EDL'CATION        163 

another."  This  presupposes  that  the  lesson 
of  kindness  is  actually  embedded  in  the  scrip- 
ture passage.  As  soon  as  the  pupil  leaves  the 
class,  or  even  before,  he  is  likely  to  be  con- 
fronted with  a  concrete  opportunity  to  be 
kind.  What,  now,  has  he  gotten  from  the  les- 
son that  will  induce  him  to  be  kind?  The 
least  effective  of  all  that  he  has  gotten  is  the 
teacher's  formula;  much  more  effective  is  the 
passage  of  Scripture  with  its  concrete  pic- 
ture ;  most  effective  of  all  will  be  the  concrete, 
scriptural  kindness  which  the  pupil  has  wit- 
nessed and  experienced  on  the  part  of  the 
teacher.  The  influence  is  in  proportion  to  the 
concreteness  of  the  material. 

This  principle  does  not  imply  reticence  re- 
garding spiritual  truth,  but  rather  that  the 
teacher  should  teach  the  Bible  so  well  that  the 
pupil  shall  see  for  himself  the  spiritual  truth 
therein.  Again,  the  principle  does  not  forbid 
making  a  direct  appeal  to  the  conscience  of 
the  pupil  on  any  fitting  occasion.  A  "fitting 
occasion,"  however,  is  one  in  which  some  con- 
crete reality— whether  the  teacher's  person- 
ality, an  historical  incident,  or  the  pupil's 
own  experience — overflows  the  spoken  word 
and  makes  it  an  instrument  of  reality.^ 

*  Cf.  Burton  and  Mathews :  Principles  and  Ideals  for 
the  Sunday  School   (Chicago,  1903),  pages  100,  101. 


166     EDUCATION   IN   RELIGION  AND  MORALS 

92.  Symbols  But  this  is  not  the  end  of 

apart  from  ^^^  matter.     We  must  ask 
Reality  Weaken 

CharikCter.  not    merely    which    is    the 

stronger  incitement  to  kind- 
ness, but  also  what  is  the  effect  of  using  weak 
incitements.  Anyone  who  has  studied  the 
young  can  answer  this  question.  The  weak- 
ness of  the  symbol  tends  to  be  attributed  to 
the  thing  symbolised.  The  anti-climax  of  the 
teacher's  remarks  about  kindness  tend  to 
weaken  respect  for  this  virtue.  Kindness 
comes  to  be  associated  in  thought  with  weak- 
ness, and  so  manliness  comes  to  signify  some 
amount  of  roughness  or  disregard  for  others. 
Parallel  results  follow  from  teaching  any 
other  duty  or  any  spiritual  privilege  in  this 
way.  The  separation  of  the  symbol  from  the 
thing  symbolised  results  in  the  separation  of 
thought  from  action ;  this  implies  action  from 
impulse  while  principle  looks  on;  but  when 
principle  becomes  an  onlooker  instead  of  com- 
batant, then  character  is  left  to  chance.  This 
is  true  of  docile  pupils  as  well  as  of  restless 
and  intractable  ones.  The  docile  pupil  is 
likely  to  be  simply  a  two  or  more  sided  one 
who  reserves  a  part  of  his  self-expression  for 
other  occasions.  Or  he  may  be  unnaturally 
passive  and  compliant.      In   either   case   the 


REALITY  AND  SYMBOL  IN  EDUCATION       167 

actual  character  fails  to  receive  its  proper 
nutriment.  Character  grows  through  reac- 
tions upon  concrete  facts  and  conditions. 

93.  Development  Specifically,     what     con- 

of    Character  i.      ^     ^  ^  j-.-         a 

through  Crete  lacts  and  conditions? 

Self- Adjustment       Where  is  the  child  or  the 

to    Community  ,  1,1,11        i-    • 

Life.  youth  to  behold  religion  in 

the  concrete?  Wliat  is  it 
that  is  to  stir  him  to  action  and  awaken  his 
consciousness  of  principles?  In  a  word,  the 
kingdom  of  God  actualised  in  various  forms 
of  community  life.  The  family  is,  or  should 
be,  the  first  form  in  which  the  kingdom  con- 
fronts the  child.  Then  come  the  public  school 
and  the  Sunday  school.  In  neither  of  these 
is  the  chief  task  that  of  imparting  informa- 
tion, but  that  of  maintaining  sound  commu- 
nity life  and  carrying  forward  appropriate 
community  tasks.  Just  as  far  as  genuine 
community  life  is  maintained  in  either  form 
of  school,  the  principles  of  the  kingdom  are 
in  actual  operation.  The  same  principle  is 
found  in  other  forms  of  human  organisation, 
and  finally  in  the  church.  Here  is  religion 
objectively  realised,  and  to  it  ths  child  has  to 
adjust  himself.  Through  them  he  is  to  dis- 
cover that  he  is  a  social  being,  that  he  has  cer- 
tain duties,  and  that  the  ultimate  meaning  of 


168     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

life  is  found  in  that  complete  society  in  which 
God  loves  us,  and  we  love  him  and  one  an- 
other.^ In  a  nutshell,  then,  the  essential 
method  whereby  reality  is  to  be  put  before 
symbol  in  religious  education  consists  in  plac- 
ing such  a  social  environment  about  the  child 
that  his  self -adjustments  to  it  shall  involve 
both  good  habits  and  growing  spiritual  in- 
sight. In  such  an  environment  the  Bible  or 
other  symbols  of  religious  life  receive  living 
interpretation  as,  in  turn,  they  illuminate  the 
facts  and  lead  the  way  to  higher  things. 

94.  Necessity  of  Having  laid  much  stress 

the   Symbol.  ,,  ^  , 

upon   the    secondary   place 

of  the  symbol  as  compared  with  the  experi- 
ence that  it  registers,  we  must  now  remind 
ourselves  that  our  principle  is  not  merely  that 
reality  comes  before  symbol,  but  also  that 
symbol  comes  after  reality.  One  of  the  most 
important  acquisitions  of  the  human  mind  is 
language.  The  naming  of  a  thing  is,  in  fact, 
a  part  of  the  process  of  knowing  it.  The 
name  points  out  the  qualities  and  relations  of 
a  thing,  and  classifies  it  with  other  like  things, 

^  One  night  a  little  child  who  had  been  accustomed  to 
use  the  prayer,  "Now  I  laj'  me,"  requested  permission  to 
make  up  a  prayer  of  his  own.  Permission  being  given, 
he  prayed  as  follows  :  "O  God,  isn't  It  nice  to  ride  in 
the  cable  car !  Please  send  me  a  bicycle.  Amen." 
Note  the  sense  of  fellowship,  evidently  a  "direct  product 
of  human  fellowships. 


REALITY  AND  SYMBOL  IN  EDUCATION       16!) 

The  name  abides  when  the  thing  is  absent ;  it 
can  be  called  up  by  our  own  act,  and  can  then 
take  the  mental  place  of  the  thing  itself;  by 
means  of  it  we  can  communicate  with  one  an- 
other, and  even  adjust  our  conduct  to  fact?s 
that  are  distant  or  future.  This  is  possibly 
one  reason  why  some  early  peoples  believed' 
that  to  know  the  name  of  a  thing  is  to  possess 
power  over  the  thing  itself.  To  let  the  mem- 
bers of  another  tribe  know  the  name  of  one's 
tribal  god,  or  even  the  real  name  of  one's  self 
was  looked  upon  as  dangerous.  We  must,  in- 
deed, put  things  first,  but  we  must  put  sym- 
bols second.  After  a  child  has  grasped  an 
arithmetical  or  grammatical  principle,  the 
statement  of  it  becomes  a  help  in  many  ways. 
Definition  helps  clear  thinking,  and  clear 
thinking  helps  toward  wise  self-control.  The 
name,  the  rule,  and  finally  the  theoretical 
formula,  all  have  a  place  in  ethics  and  reli- 
gion. As  religious  training  has  in  the  past 
erred  by  putting  symbol  in  the  place  of  real- 
ity, so  there  is  danger  in  our  days  of  not  reg- 
istering our  moral  and  religious  experience  in 
any  sufficient  manner.  Without  definite  reg- 
istering of  ideas  communication  becomes  in- 
definite, and  education  ends  either  in  senti- 
mentality or  in  mechanical  habit.    In  proper- 


170     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 


tion,  then,  as  the  child  mind,  through  its  own 
concrete  life,  grows  in  ability  to  understand 
the  symbols  that  express  the  truth  to  us,  these 
symbols  should  be  imparted. 


CHAPTER  XI 

PERSONAL    AND    SOCIAL    FORCES    IN    EDUCATION 

95.  Character  is  \\q  have  just  Concluded 

through  that  the  chief  factor  in  the 

Suggestion  and  development  of  character 
is  found  in  the  relations  of 
the  young  to  the  various  communities  of 
which  they  are  parts.  Personality  in  its 
social  aspects  thus  acquires  first-class  signifi- 
cance as  an  educational  force.  It  is  to  be  as- 
sumed, of  course,  that  each  community  to 
which  a  child  belongs,  whether  the  family- 
community  or  any  other,  will  prescribe  some 
kind  of  rules  to  all  its  members,  the  children 
included,  and  that  these  rules  will  be  en- 
forced under  the  principle  of  self-expression 
as  explained  in  Chapter  IX.  But  this  for- 
mulated element  in  the  child's  personal  and 
social  relations  is  by  no  means  the  only,  or 
even  the  most  influential  one.  There  is  in  ad- 
dition what  goes  under  the  name  of  "the  in- 
fluence of  personality,"  and  also  what  we 
might  call  "the  influence  of  social  atmos- 
phere." 

The  present  chapter  will  attempt  an  analy- 


172     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

sis  of  these  subtle  influences.  We  cannot  be- 
gin the  analysis  better  than  by  a  word  con- 
cerning the  psychological  process  by  which 
they  become  effective.  The  central  features 
of  the  process  are  called  suggestion  and  imi- 
tation. The  law  of  suggestion  is  that  any 
idea  of  an  act  or  function  tends  to  produce 
that  very  act  or  function.  For  example,  the 
sight  of  a  highly  polished  surface  suggests  to 
us  (very  likely  without  our  stopping  to  think 
about  it  at  all)  the  pleasant  "feel"  of  such  a 
surface  when  the  hand  moves  over  it ;  conse- 
quently we  tend  (often  without  realising 
what  we  are  doing)  to  stroke  such  surfaces. 
In  the  course  of  a  minute  or  so  I  saw  five 
persons  thus  "feel"  the  marble  wainscoting 
as  they  moved  down  one  of  the  corridors  of 
the  Chicago  Public  Library.  Suggestion  can 
come  in  un-numbered  forms;  it  can  come  in 
the  language  of  advice  or  persuasion;  it  can 
come  in  the  acts  which  we  see  othere  perform ; 
it  can  come  through  our  own  inferences  from 
what  we  see  or  hear;  even  our  own  acts  tend 
to  repeat  themselves.  The  last  is  self-imita- 
tion, and  in  general  imitation  operates 
through  suggestion.  Deliberate  imitation  is 
comparatively  rare,  while  imitation  of  the  sug- 
gestive order  is  universal  and  constant.    One 


PERSONAL  FORCES  IN  EDUCATION     173 

takes  on  the  fashions  or  "fads"  of  the  time, 
the  manners  of  one's  social  group,  even  the 
language,  tone  of  voice,  and  facial  expression 
of  those  with  whom  one  is  constantly  asso- 
ciated, and  all  without  clearly  intending  to 
do  so. 

A  moment's  consideration  of  such  facts 
will  show  that  this  process  is  not  a  merely  ex- 
ternal one.  We  do  not  merely  "take  on"  the 
external  aspects  of  what  we  imitate,  but  the 
internal  aspects  also.  We  experience  feelings 
appropriate  to  the  acts  performed,  and  much 
of  this  feeling  apparently  results  from  per- 
forming the  act.  If  the  people  all  about  us 
on  the  street  are  walking  fast,  we  quicken  our 
pace,  and  presently  we  feel  hurried.  It  is 
thus  that  mobs  and  panics  exercise  their  mys- 
terious control  over  individuals.  Now,  chil- 
dren are  the  greatest  imitators,  and  thereby 
they  form  not  only  external  habits,  but  also 
habitual  modes  of  feeling,  thinking,  and  as- 
piring— in  a  word,  character. 

96.  The  Influence  Apart  from  all  our  inten- 

of   Personality.  ,.  ,,  , 

tions,      then,      and      even 

against  our  intentions,  personality  propagates 
itself.  More  than  anything  else,  education  in 
its  initial  stages  is  the  propagation  of  char- 
acter through  imitation  working  by  sugges- 


174     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

tion.  In  the  long  run,  what  the  teacher  or 
the  parent  gives  to  the  young  is  just  one's 
self,  very  little  more  and  very  little  less.  What 
one  is  in  both  mental  and  bodily  habit  is 
transmitted  either  by  means  of  method  or  in 
spite  of  it.  A  nervous  teacher  will  have  nerv- 
ous pupils;  a  peevish  or  arbitrary  parent  will 
have  peevish  or  arbitrary  children.  The  child 
will  adopt  the  political  and  religious  opinions 
of  parent  and  teacher  without  argument;  he 
will  accept  their  standard  of  right  and  wrong. 
Thus  it  is  that  a  strong  and  wholesome  per- 
sonality may  counteract  defective  methods, 
while  the  best  of  methods  never  succeeds  in 
the  absence  of  such  personality:  Of  course,  the 
highest  result  is  to  be  reached  only  when  the 
best  personal  qualities  are  joined  with  right 
choice  of  material  and  the  best  methods  of 
using  it. 

97.  "Condescend-  The  personal  element  in 

iT,?.,  .*°         .  teaching  is  what  we  really 

Children  and  °  -        , 

Youth.  are.     It   is   not   something 

that  can  be  put  on  when  we 
are  with  the  young  and  taken  off  when  we  are 
away  from  them.  Anything  merely  put  on 
tends  to  defeat  its  own  aim.  The  young  have 
sharp  eyes  and  what  they  do  not  distinctly 
see  they  often  feel.     To  put  into  the  voice  a 


PERSONAL  FORCES  IN  EDUCATION     175 

tone,  or  into  the  face  a  look,  or  into  our  acts 
a  manner  that  we  do  not  really  feel  is  to  run 
great  risk  of  creating  a  suspicion  that  we  are 
not  quite  genuine.  ^Tio  can  measure  the 
amount  of  repugnance  toward  the  church  that 
has  been  awakened  by  the  pro5fessional  tone 
that  is  often  assumed  by  religious  workers? 
The  professional  tone  is  a  sign  that  a  fence 
has  been  built  around  one's  personality.  It 
means  that  a  man  is  giving  to  his  fellows 
things  or  ideas,  but  not  himself.  How  many 
times  has  a  spontaneous  laugh  knitted  to- 
gether teacher  and  pupil  by  revealing  the  real 
man  or  woman  in  the  teacher !  The  pupil  dis- 
covers spiritual  kinship  J^etween  himself  and 
the  teacher  who  laughs  with  him,  for  the  two 
partake  of  a  common  experience.^  This  is  a 
typical  case,  and  it  stands  for  the  general 
truth  that  the  positive  influence  of  personal- 
ity grows  out  of  the  sharing  of  experience, 
whereby  all  the  processes  of  suggestion,  imi- 
tation, sympathy,  and  self-expression  become 
free. 

On  the  other  hand,  a  negative  or  repulsive 
influence  of  personality  arises  when  one  per- 

^  "Seldom  should  smiling,  never  laughing,  have  place 
in  religious  instruction,"  says  A.  Vinet.- — Pastoral 
Theology  (New  York,  1856),  page  234.  To  take  this 
ground  is  to  lessen  the  human  touch  through  which  alone 
the  best  that  is  in  the  teacher  reaches  the  child. 


176     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

son  seeks  to  influence  or  control  another  with- 
out sharing  his  actual  experience.  Thus  of- 
fers of  mere  pity  are  often  resented  just  when 
sympathy  is  most  needed.  We  do  not  wish 
to  be  merely  pitied,  but  we  do  long  for  com- 
panionship. A  faithful  dog  that  shares  our 
bad  fortune  with  us  can  comfort  us  more  than 
a  man  who  merely  reaches  an  arm  down  to 
help  us.  The  same  principle  appears  in  the 
vanity  of  giving  alms  without  love,  and  of 
trying  to  do  by  means  of  money  and  institu- 
tions what  only  the  sharing  of  life  can  ever 
accomplish.  ' '  Come,  let  us  live  with  our  chil- 
dren," said  Froebel.  No  educational  machin- 
ery can  ever  take  the  place  of  this  living  with 
the  young,  this  entrance  as  a  sincere  partner 
into  their  experience,  and  the  corresponding 
admission  of  them  as  real  partners  into  one's 
mature  interests. 

98.  Childlikeness  But   how   can   a   mature 

in   Men  and  .  .  ^        ^    ^c 

yeomen.  person  return  to  a  level  or 

life  that  he  has  long  left 
behind?  And  how  can  a  child  be  a  real  part- 
ner in  mature  interests?  Must  not  the  com- 
mon plane  upon  which  maturity  meets  child- 
hood be  simulated?  The  answer  is  that  a 
normally  developed  manhood  or  womanhood 
retains  something  of  childlikeness  within  it- 


PERSONAL  FORCES  IN  EDUCATION     177 

self.  That  we  lose  the  child-heart  and  the 
child-mind  out  of  us  results  from  false  educa- 
tion and  from  our  sin  and  folly.  The  greatest 
characters  have  ever  retained  the  child  within 
themselves,  so  that  the  perennial  wonder  of 
the  populace  is  that  its  heroes  are  so  simple, 
so  spontaneous,  so  much  "like  one  of  the  fam- 
ily." The  truly  great  man  is  nearer  to  the 
common  people  and  nearer  to  childhood  than 
those  would-be  great  men  who  dry  and  shrink 
and  stiffen  in  the  heat  of  artificial  ambitions. 
What  we  need,  then,  is  not  condescension  to 
the  young,  but  rather  rediscovery  of  the  per- 
ennial springs  of  our  own  childhood.  Play,  for 
example,  should  never  cease  to  be  a  part  of 
our  daily  routine,  and  even  the  simplest  plays 
should  retain  a  native  interest  for  us.  We 
would  be  better,  happier,  more  efficient  men 
if  we  took  a  larger  part  with  children  in  tag, 
or  hide-and-seek,  or  marbles  and  jackstones, 
or  kite-flying,  or  ball  playing;  and,  sharing 
thus  in  the  experiences  of  the  young,  we 
should   have  a  far  larger  influence  over  them. 

99.  Letting  the  On  the  Other  hand,  it  is 

Young  Share  in  .,  ,     -         i      -x  -i  ^ 

Mature  Interests.       POSSlble  to  admit  the  yOUng 

at  an  early  age  to  genuine 
participation  in  the  occupations  or  daily 
duties  of  their  elders.  Children  long  for  oppor- 


178     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

tunities  to  do  things.  They  watch  their  elders 
at  work  and  wish  for  some  part  to  do.  What 
a  boon  it  is  when  some  sympathetic  person 
permits  even  a  little  co-operation.  A  little 
girl  would  rather  have  some  part  in  the  house- 
keeping than  not ;  a  little  boy  is  never  happier 
than  when  the  father  permits  him  to  fetch 
and  carry,  to  handle  tools,  to  feed  or  drive 
the  domestic  animals,  provided,  always,  that 
such  occupation  brings  real  companionship 
with  the  parent  in  accomplishing  something. 
Here  is  one  point  at  which  country  boys  have 
the  advantage  of  city  boys.  In  the  country 
the  family  performs  more  kinds  of  service  for 
itself,  so  that  there  is  a  larger  variety  of  pos- 
sible occupations  for  the  boy  as  well  as  his 
father.  The  first  time  that  a  farmer's  boy  is 
permitted  to  take  a  horse  to  the  blacksmith 
shop  all  by  himself  is  likely  never  to  be  for- 
gotten. The  first  time  that  any  boy  is  trusted 
to  carry  a  package  of  money  or  to  perform 
some  other  act  of  real  importance  his  sense  of 
responsibility  and  of  honor  is  likely  to  burst 
into  sudden  blossom.  He  feels  himself  to  be 
a  part  of  the  real  world,  and  to  be  bound  by 
strong  ties  to  his  parents  and  their  standards. 
Such  touches  of  reality  can  begin  very  early  in 
life,  and  they  can  be  graded  to  fit  the  child's 


PERSONAL  FORCES  IN  EDUCATION     179 

growing  capacity.  They  develop  the  habit  of 
living  a  real  life,  that  is,  a  life  of  social  re- 
sponsibility as  contrasted  with  mere  caprice 
or  mere  impulse;  and  this  habit  of  living  in 
realities  goes  farther  toward  developing  solid 
character  than  rivers  of  mere  instruction  and 
advice.  Moral  instruction,  in  fact,  becomes 
significant  only  in  proportion  as  it  has  some 
such  background,  or  rather  in  proportion  as 
it  is  an  integral  part  of  living  in  the  realities 
of  life.  Knowing  the  right  and  doing  the 
right  need  to  be  fused  into  one. 

Thus,  after  all,  the  one  prime  essential  for 
moral  and  religious  education  is  that  the 
young  should  live  a  common  life  with  moral 
and  religious  elders.  A  common  life :  this  does 
not  mean  living  under  the  same  roof,  or  eat- 
ing from  the  same  table,  or  receiving  com- 
mands and  advice;  it  means  having  experi- 
ences and  occupations  in  common,  so  that  the 
real  self  of  each,  with  its  actual  interests,  is 
revealed  freely  to  the  other.  This  law  applies, 
too,  not  merely  to  the  externals  of  conduct  or 
to  mere  morals;  it  reaches  to  the  inner  re- 
cesses of  the  soul.  A  child  who  lives  in  such 
relations  as  these  Avith  elders  who  are  vitally 
spiritual  comes  in  the  most  natural  way  to 
include  spirituality  in  his  notion  of  real  life; 


180     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION  AND   MORALS 

he  takes  it  for  granted ;  it  becomes  his  law, 
and  he  makes  efforts  to  obey  it  just  as  spon- 
taneously as  he  makes  effort  to  win  his  games. 

100.  Fellowship  If  we  trace  any  character, 

the  Starting  Point  ,  it.-. 

of  Both  Good  and  ^^od  or  bad,  to  Its  sources, 
Evil  Character.  we  always  find  it  starting  in 
fellowship.  The  young  life 
comes  into  contact  with  a  wholesome  or  un- 
wholesome personality,  and  catches  its  spirit 
as  if  by  infection.  From  the  idle  gossip  of 
neighbors  to  the  revelry  of  a  saloon,  the  en- 
tering wedge  of  evil  is  fellowship.  Remove 
this  element,  and  the  remaining  factors  in 
temptation  of  many  kinds  would  appear  so 
gross  as  to  lose  much  of  their  attractiveness,  at 
least  to  one  who  is  taking  the  first  steps  in  evil. 
After  a  sinful  habit  of  any  kind  is  set  up,  to 
be  sure,  coarser  and  coarser  motives  suffice. 
But  the  point  at  which  the  first  .step  is  taken 
is  not  solicitation  by  any  coarse  motive  in  its 
native  coarseness,  but  in  the  garb  of  good  fel- 
lowship, conformity  to  custom,  amiable  com- 
pliance with  the  standards  of  other  persons. 
In  the  pleasant  atmosphere  of  fellowship,  all 
the  forces  of  imitation  and  suggestion  work 
unimpeded  upon  an  unformed  character  to 
give  it  the  complexion  of  its  surroundings. 
We  do  not  become  either  good  or  evil,  either 


PERSONAL  FORCES  IN  EDUCATION     181 

religious  or  irreligious,  merely  by  deliberate 
choice,  and  any  plan  of  moral  and  religious 
education  that  depends  for  success  primarily 
and  chiefly  upon  such  choices  is  sure  to  let  go 
the  golden  opportunity.  The  great  lever  of 
good,  as  of  evil,  is  fellowship,  the  sharing  of 
life. 
101.  The  Mixed  Theoretically  the  problem 

Environment  of  „  tit-  i 

the  Young,  and        ot  moral  and  religious  edu- 
our  Resulting  cation    is    not    particularly 

formidable.  Keep  the  child 
in  constant  fellowship  with  Christian  charac- 
ter and  away  from  all  other  character,  let  in- 
struction keep  pace  with  the  growing  powers, 
and  the  work  is  done.  But  the  practical  prob- 
lem is  not  as  simple  as  this.  For  the  actual 
environment  of  every  child  is  mixed.  In  us 
who  follow  Christ  the  wheat  and  the  chaff  are 
not  yet  separated,  and  among  the  persons  with 
whom  the  child  is  in  touch  many  are  not  dis- 
ciples. We  simply  cannot  shut  up  any  child 
to  an  environment  that  is  completely  whole- 
some ;  we  cannot  shut  out  temptation  and  the 
liability  of  a  fall.  Even  if  we  could  compass 
such  a  plan,  children  subjected  to  it  would 
not  be  prepared  for  life  in  a  world  like  ours. 
They  would  not  understand  the  world  or  their 
own  place  in  it.  Rightly  understood,  the  child- 


182     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

hood  of  Jesus,  his  bringing  up  in  a  social  en- 
vironment made  up  of  both  evil  and  good,  is 
an  esvsential  feature  of  the  incarnation.  Terri- 
ble as  the  danger  is,  the  very  best  thing  for 
the  child  is  that  he  should  be  subjected  to  the 
evil  as  well  as  the  good  influences  of  his  social 
environment.  Only  so  comes  discrimination, 
strength  of  resistance,  realisation  of  the 
world's  need,  practical  adaptation,  and  the 
soldierly  spirit  in  the  contest  for  the  kingdom 
of  God.  But,  this  being  the  case,  the  duty  is 
upon  us  to  make  of  religious  and  moral  edu- 
cation a  never-sleeping,  never-pausing  cam- 
paign. We  are  not  merely  to  extend  informa- 
tion and  advice  to  the  young;  nay,  we  are  to 
fight  evil  in  the  concrete  side  by  side  with  the 
child.  The  chief  feature  of  the  schooling  of 
his  character  is  to  be  his  participation  in  our 
work  and  in  our  fight  to  set  up  the  kingdom 
of  God  in  the  world. 

The  strategic  position  in  the  campaign  of 
moral  and  religious  education  now  becomes 
plain.  It  is  the  element  of  fellowship.  We  are 
to  make  wholesome  fellowships — whether  in 
the  home,  the  school,  the  church,  the  college, 
or  the  neighborhood— so  warm,  so  natural,  so 
unremitting,  so  unreserved  that  every  un- 
wholesome fellowship  shall  seem  artificial  and 


PERSONAL  FORCES  IN  EDUCATION  188 

unattractive.  This  is  the  central  position,  but 
it  is  not  all.  For  now  we  see  that  every 
social  institution,  custom,  and  sentiment  has  a 
bearing  upon  the  growing  character.  For  ex- 
ample, the  non-enforcement  of  the  laws,  or  the 
desultory  and  inconsistent  enforcement  of 
them,  influences  the  character  of  the  young 
directly.  The  most  serious  thing  about  all 
forms  of  tolerated  wrong  is  that  they  train 
the  young  to  low  standards.  In  a  word,  then, 
the  campaign  for  the  religious  education  of 
the  young  is  all  one  with  the  campaign  for 
personal  and  social  righteousness,  and  its  pe- 
culiar part  of  the  fight  depends  upon  com- 
radeship and  life-sharing  between  the  older 
and  the  younger. 

102.  The  Public  We  have  already  touched 

Pr6SS     3S 

Educator  in  ^^^  merely  upon  direct  per- 

M orals.  sonal  influences,    but    also 

upon  what  may  be  called 
the  influence  of  the  social  atmosphere.  A  par- 
ticular instance  of  this  kind  is  found  in  the 
relation  of  the  public  press  to  the  formation 
of  character.  In  the  press  public  sentiment 
is  both  revealed  and  guided.  Here  the  spirit 
of  the  times  or  of  a  party  speaks  directly  to 
the  young.  Without  traveling,  without  large 
acquaintance  with  men,  without  study,  one  is 


184     EDUCATION   IN   RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

made  to  feel  as  others  are  feeling,  to  judge  as 
others  are  judging,  to  desire  what  others  are 
desiring.  The  enlargement  of  knowledge  and 
the  broadening  of  sympathy  that  have  come 
through  newspaper  reading  is  a  remarkable 
fact,  and  it  is  a  blessing  for  which  we  can 
hardly  be  too  thankful.  The  whole  newspaper- 
reading  world  is  fast  coming  to  feel  itself  akin 
to  all  mankind.  Yet  the  newspaper  is  capable 
of  becoming  a  greater  blessing  still.  It  can 
do  vastly  more  for  childhood  and  youth  than 
it  is  doing.  To  a  considerable  extent  the  press 
of  today  is  training  the  young  to  morally  ob- 
jectionable conceptions  of  life.  For  example, 
consider  that,  from  the  time  that  boys  are 
able  to  read,  one  of  their  chief  interests  is  in 
games,  and  then  note  the  kind  of  food  that 
the  sporting  pages  of  the  daily  papers  pro- 
vide for  this  interest.  Again,  what  impres- 
sion as  to  domestic  life  are  boys  and  girls  and 
young  men  and  young  women  receiving  from 
the  representations  of  it  that  are  constantly 
found  in  the  daily  press?  What  standards 
of  citizenship,  what  attitude  toward  law,  in 
short,  what  kind  of  life  is  fostered  in  the 
young  by  the  reading  of  newspapers?  It  is 
worth  asking  whether  newspaper  men,  in 
their  effort  to  tell  the  news,  do  not  habitually 


PERSONAL  FORCES  IN  EDUCATION     185 

make  prominent  the  less  wholesome  aspects  of 
life,  and  whether,  as  a  consequence,  young  and 
old  are  not  mentally  associating  too  much  with 
questionable  company.  Then,  too,  newspa- 
pers, as  they  are  at  present  conducted — that 
is,  the  ordinary  daily  papers — so  present  the 
news  as  to  produce  constant  excitement  in  the 
reader.  The  result  is  an  uneasy  habit  of 
mind,  inability  to  be  at  home  in  one's  own 
thoughts,  feverish  consciousness  of  the  larger 
world.  The  outcome  is  not  only  unrest,  but 
also  overvaluation  of  publicity.  We  are  ap- 
parently moving  toward  a  time  when  little 
boys  and  little  girls  will  scarcely  regard  a 
game  of  ball  or  a  birthday  party  as  really  suc- 
cessful unless  it  is  noticed  in  the  public 
prints ! 

103.  Capture  the  The  power  of  the  news- 

Preluppositions!  Paper  Hes  less  in  what  it 
positively  asserts  as  to 
right  and  wrong  than  in  what  it  takes  for 
granted,  what  it  tolerates  without  pro- 
test, what  it  habitually  presents  as  inter- 
esting reading.  All  this  tends  to  form 
the  child's  presumptions  regarding  life.  It 
creates  presuppositions  or  standards  with  ref- 
erence to  which  he  judges  himself  and  others. 
Now,  this  is  the  very  way  in  which  much  of 


186     EDUCATION   IN   RELIGION   AND   MORALS 


the  best  work  of  moral  and  religious  educa- 
tion has  to  be  done.    That  is,  by  means  of  our 
habitual  assumptions  and  our  habitual  inter- 
ests we  must  capture  the  child's  presupposi- 
tions in  favor  of  true  standards  of  value.    In 
some  ways  we  do  this  already  with  a  fair  de- 
gree of  success.    An  American  boy,  a  German 
boy,  or  an  English  boy  grows  up  loyal  to  his 
fatherland  without  knowing  how  he  becomes 
loyal.     He  breathes  in  pride  of  country  from 
the  social  atmosphere.     The  sense  of  family 
loyalty  and  honor  is  successfully  fostered  in 
the  same   way;   the   child  never  knows  any 
other  view  of  his  family.    Thus  also  many  of 
the  everyday  virtues  are  already  taught.  But 
this  capturing  of  the  presuppositions  can  ex- 
tend very  much  farther.     The  older  persons 
with  whom  the  young  are  in  habitual  con- 
tact should  constantly  reveal  themselves  not 
only    as    lovers    of    their    family    and    their 
country,  but  also  as  lovers  of  God  and  Christ 
and  humanity.     The   Christian  idea  of  life 
need  not  be  "dragged  in"  at  all;  it  calls  for 
no  dry  sermonising  or  moralising;  it  needs 
only  to  be  talked  about  and  acted  upon  as  we 
talk  and  act  with  respect  to  family  honor  or 
patriotism.    A  child  who  is  reared  in  this  way 
easily  counts  himself  as  belonging  to  God  and 


PERSONAL  FORCES  IN  EDUCATION     187 

Christ  from  the  start,  just  as  he  counts  him- 
self an  American  or  a  member  of  his  father's 
family. 
104.  But  Self-  While  it  is  true  that  per- 

Conscious    Choice  i-,      •     it      ^    i  •         »>         j 

Must  Come.  sonality  is     catching,     and 

that  much  of  the  best  work 
in  character  training  is  eifected  through  imi- 
tation and  suggestion,  it  is  also  true  that 
character  depends  upon  deliberate  choices. 
We  cannot  rely  upon  the  force  of  mere  imita- 
tion or  suggestion  to  carry  anyone  through 
the  crises  of  moral  and  spiritual  experience. 
There  will  arise  the  insistent  question  whether 
the  habitual  presupposition  is  correct,  and  al- 
so that  ofttimes  tragical  question,  what  kind 
of  success  one  shall  choose  to  seek,  what  kind 
of  self  one  shall  choose  to  be.  What,  now,  is 
the  relation  of  the  personal  and  social  forces 
that  we  have  described  to  the  voluntary  fac- 
tor that  now  enters  into  the  problem?  The 
problem  of  personal  choices  does  not  normally 
grow  acute  until  the  beginning  or  middle  of 
adolescence,  that  is,  not  much  before  the  years 
from  twelve  to  fifteen,  though  it  may  arise  in 
minor  and  gradually  increasing  degree  before 
that  age.  This  self-conscious  element  in  moral 
and  spiritual  development  should  be  permitted 
to  awaken  spontaneously.     It  should  not  be 


188     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

forced.  It  is  a  distinctly  wholesome  sign  for 
a  child  up  to  the  beginning  of  adolescence 
simply  to  assume  that  he  is  included  with  his 
parents  within  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  to 
take  no  thought  for  decisions  or  experiences 
other  than  those  directly  involved  in  filling  his 
proper  place  in  the  family,  in  the  school, 
among  his  playmates,  etc.  During  this  period, 
therefore,  the  character  is  forming  chiefly  un- 
der the  silent  and  unconscious  influence  of  the 
personal  and  social  environment.  But,  sud- 
denly or  gradually,  the  child  awakens  into  a 
self-conscious,  self-acting,  factor  in  the  for- 
mation of  his  own  character. 

105.  The  Will  not  There  are  three  theories 

to  be  Suppressed  ,  ■<     .     •  x       i, 

by  Compulsion  or  ^s  to  what  IS  now  to  be 
Authority.  done    for    him.      The    first 

theory  advises  simple  com- 
pulsion :  Compel  the  youth  to  go  to  church, 
to  read  his  Bible,  to  pray,  to  learn 
his  catechism ;  repress  his  doubts  by  stern 
condemnation ;  in  a  word,  choose  ^or  him. 
This  would,  of  course,  violate  the  entire  theory 
of  development  through  free  self-activity.  The 
second  theory  advises  that  reliance  be  placed 
upon  habit  and  standard  already  formed.  The 
idea  is  to  keep  the  youth  going  through  the 
same  motions  as  in  childhood,  and  to  prevent 


PERSONAL  FORCES  IN  EDUCATION     189 

iiidividual  variations  by  the  sheer  force  of 
training  received  while  the  personality  was 
passively  compliant.  This  is  substantially  the 
method  in  use  by  the  Catholic  church.  It, 
too,  fails  to  give  scope  to  the  principle  of  free 
self-activity.  It  thinks  of  the  teaching  au- 
thority as  one  that  not  merely  feeds  but  also 
commands  the  intellect,  even  prescribing  pains 
and  penalties  for  variations.  This  is  simplj' 
a  modified  form  of  the  theory  of  compulsion, 
for  to  prevent  the  individual  will  from  be- 
coming conscious  of  itself  is  to  compel  the 
personality  just  as  truly  as  to  crush  a  will  that 
has  once  become  self-conscious. 

106.  How  Prevent        The  third  theory  encour- 

a  Break  with  .^       n    ^^   ■,^  r? 

Childhood  ages  the  full  blossoming  ot 

Training?  self-conscious   thought   and 

self-conscious  will,  even 
though  this  brings  peril  of  false  thinking  and 
wrong  choices.  It  declares  that  there  is  no 
other  way  in  which  the  personality  can  be- 
come fully  mature.  The  danger  of  this  theory 
is  that  it  shall  rely  too  much  upon  a  single 
phase  of  what  ought  to  be  a  continuous  proc- 
ess. Certainly  we  should  not  expect  ado- 
lescence to  be  a  completely  new  beginning; 
neither  conversion  nor  any  other  process  ever 
makes  up  for  the  neglect  of  early  training. 


190     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

Our  problem,  then,  is  simply  this :  How  can 
the  relatively  passive  impressions  of  child- 
hood become  a  genuine  factor  in  personal  re- 
flection and  choice  except  under  the  inertia  of 
mere  habit?  The  solution  of  the  problem  is 
to  be  found  in  providing  the  child  with  pre- 
suppositions that  have  the  simplicity,  the  di- 
rectness, the  appealing  eloquence  of  the  eter- 
nally and  obviously  real.  What  the  youth 
most  needs  when  he  comes  to  the  age  of  self- 
questioning  is  to  feel  that  his  life  is  already 
real,  not  artificial.  He  feels  this  with  re- 
spect to  affection  between  himself  and  his 
parents,  and  consequently,  in  spite  of  the 
chafings  under  parental  authority,  in  spite  of 
the  acts  of  rebellion,  that  come  into  the  life 
of  most  youths,  very  rarely  do  the  youth's 
feelings  really  cut  loose  from  the  family. 
There  remains  a  fundamental  sense  of  re- 
ality. This  is  the  heart  of  the  problem  of 
moral  and  religious  training— to  be  real,  to 
rely  upon  nothing  artificial,  to  bring  the  eter- 
nal into  the  forms  of  a  child's  daily  life,  and 
into  the  forms  of  a  child's  daily  thought.  The 
youth  will  receive  some  help  from  reasoned 
instruction ;  he  will  receive  more  from  a  con- 
tinuance of  that  sharing  of  life  of  which  men- 
tion has  been  made;  he  will  be  greatly  in- 


PERSONAL  FORCES  IN  EDUCATION     191 

fluenced  by  the  mere  habits  of  his  childhood; 
but  that  which  will  hold  him  most  firmly  and 
certainly  to  conservative  choices  will  be  his 
immediate  feeling  of  the  naturalness  and 
reality  of  his  existing  standards. 


PART  II 
THE  CHILD 


1 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE  RELIGIOUS  IMPULSE 

107.  Connection  At  this  point  a  new  divi- 

between    Parts    I  „  i  •      .    i       • 

and  II.  sion  01  our  subject  begins. 

Thus  far  we  have  been  seek- 
ing to  obtain  a  wide,  perspective  view  of  the 
factors,  processes,  and  fundamental  presuppo- 
sitions of  religious  and  moral  education.  The 
position  that  we  have  reached  is,  in  brief,  this : 
That  the  function  of  education  is  to  assist 
immature  human  beings  to  attain  their  proper 
destiny;  that  the  proper  destiny  of  men  is 
prefigured  and  partly  provided  for  in  the 
structure  of  the  mind;  that  man's  mental 
structure  is  not  only  ethical  (and  so  demands 
unity  with  his  fellow  men),  but  also  religious 
(and  so  demands  union  with  God)  ;  that  this 
religious  nature  is  an  expression  of  the  imme- 
diate presence  of  God  in  every  human  mind; 
that  God  himself  is  therefore  the  prime  mover 
in  all  true  education ;  that  the  highest  outward 
stimulus  for  the  religious  nature  is  God  re- 
vealed in  Christ,  so  that  God  educates  his 
children  for  union  with  himself  through 
Christ;  that  the  essential  agency  in  education 


196     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION  AND   MORALS 

is  never  things  or  ideas,  but  persons,  and  that 
the  essential  method  of  education  is  the  shar- 
ing of  life  between  a  higher  and  a  lower  per- 
son whereby  the  principle  of  incarnation  is 
carried  forward  in  each  new  generation;  that 
education  is  therefore  a  whole  of  which  in- 
struction is  only  a  part;  that  the  essential 
process  is  the  self-active,  and  therefore  free, 
expression  of  the  child's  personality;  that  the 
method  of  education  is  not  to  force  or  press 
something  upon  the  personality,  but  to  pro- 
vide fitting  material  for  the  spontaneous  ex- 
pression of  its  higher  self ;  that  education  de- 
pends, therefore,  upon  the  child's  spontaneous 
interests,  and  is  to  adapt  itself  to  the  various 
stages  of  the  child 's  development ;  finally,  that 
the  natural  line  of  moral  and  spiritual  prog- 
ress runs  through  the  various  social  groups 
with  which  the  child  is  in  fellowship  up  to 
the  supreme  fellowship  with  God. 

We  thus  obtain  a  point  of  view  from  which 
to  organize  and  to  judge  the  vast  mass  of  facts 
and  institutions  that  have  to  do  with  moral 
and  religious  training.  Our  next  task  will 
be  to  secure  as  clear  an  idea  as  present  knowl- 
edge permits  of  the  normal  order  and  method 
of  the  child's  moral  and  spiritual  develop- 
ment. 


tHE    RELIGIOUS    iMPULSEi  l&t 

We  already  have  the  idea  that  God  works 
within  the  child  in  what  we  call  his  reli- 
gious nature,  and  upon  him  through  his 
environment,  particularly  his  environment  of 
persons,  but  this  is  only  a  general  scheme,  the 
details  of  which  are  yet  to  be  filled  in.  We 
begin  with  a  more  detailed  study  of  that  with- 
in the  child  which  religious  education  is  called 
upon  to  develop,  namely,  the  religious  im- 
pulse. 

108.  The  Char-  The  science  of  religion,  as 

Primittve  we     have     already     noted, 

Religion.  shows  that  religion  is  uni- 

versal, and  that  it  springs 
from  an  impulse  that  is  native  to  the  human 
mind.  But  the  science  of  religion  has  occu- 
pied itself  almost  altogether  with  the  adult 
consciousness.  As  a  result,  the  character  and 
place  of  the  religious  impulse  in  child-con- 
sciousness remains,  for  the  most  part,  yet  to  be 
worked  out.  In  the  present  chapter  an  at- 
tempt will  be  made  to  show  the  continuity  be- 
tween this  impulse  in  adults  and  in  children, 
and  in  subsequent  chapters  of  Part  II  the 
stages  and  methods  of  its  development  will  be 
discussed. 

We  must  begin  by  asking  what  is  meant 
by  the  religious  impulse.    If  we  turn  for  an 


198     EDUCATION   IN   RELIGION  AND  MORALS 

answer  to  primitive  tribes,  this  is  the  sight 
that  meets  our  eyes:  Men  live  together  in 
small  groups  or  tribes  of  which  the  tie  is  com- 
munity of  blood.  The  prevalent  interests  are 
food-getting,  fighting  other  tribes,  and  marry- 
ing. The  universal  view  of  nature  is  animism, 
or  the  belief  that  all  objects  have  the  same 
kind  of  life  that  the  savage  feels  in  himself. 
Natural,  objects  that  smite  the  attention,  or 
that  seem  to  control  the  food-supply  and  other 
conditions  of  life,  are  feared,  placated,  and 
venerated.  Dreams  and  visions  lead  to  the 
belief  that  there  is  a  soul  separable  from  the 
body,  and  that  this  part  of  one's  ancestors 
survives  death.  The  honor  paid  to  such  an- 
cestral spirits  becomes  ancestor  worship.  The 
total  result  is  many  gods,  whose  character  and 
conduct  are  a  reflection  of  the  character  and 
conduct  of  the  worshipers.^  Where  in  all  this, 
one  may  well  ask,  is  there  anything  cognate  to 
our  own  ethical  and  spiritual  ideals? 
109.  General  Before   seeking   a    direct 

^Ja^UPA     of     trie  • 

Religious  Impulse,      answer  tO  this  question,  it  IS 

well  to  notice  that  much 
more  may  be  involved  or  implied  in  an  act  or 
a  state  of  consciousness  than  the  subject  of 

1  A  brief  and  luminous  discussion  of  primitive  religion 
may  be  found  'n  Part  I  of  A.  Menzles :  History  of 
Religion   (New  York,  1903). 


THE    RELIGIOUS    IMPULSE  199 

it  realises.  A  character  in  one  of  Moliere's 
plays  was  greatly  surprised  to  find  out  that 
he  had  been  using  nouns  and  verbs  all  his 
life  without  knowing  it !  Just  so,  long  before 
we  know  the  principles  of  logic,  we  employ 
them  to  test  our  own  and  others'  thought. 
The  same  is  true  of  the  principles  of  ethics 
and  Eestheties.  After  the  act  has  been  done, 
and  especially  after  a  mode  of  action  has  be- 
come well  developed,  science  and  philosophy 
begin  to  inquire  what  is  really  involved  there- 
in. Our  present  question  concerning  savage 
religion,  then,  is  not  so  much.  What  does  the 
savage  himself  think  about  his  religion?  as 
What  inner  principle  is  actually  at  work 
within  it? 

A  good  evidence  of  the  necessity  of  this 
distinction  is  found  in  the  discussion  whether 
primitive  religion  is  monotheistic.  It  is  reason- 
ably certain  that  the  gods  of  any  savage  tribe 
do  not  all  stand  upon  the  same  level,  and  in 
some  tribes  there  hovers  in  the  background 
of  thought  a  being  so  much  like  a  single,  orig- 
inal god  as  to  cause  some  students  to  believe 
that  monotheism  was  the  original  religion  of 
all  mankind.  Yet  it  is  doubtful  whether  any 
primitive  or  approximately  primitive  tribe 
could  without  prolonged  training  really  grasp 


200     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

the  idea  of  one  only  God.  Primitive  man 
sees  and  hears  his  gods  just  as  he  sees  and 
hears  his  fellow  men,  and  the  evidence  for 
many  gods  is  to  him  just  like  that  for  many 
men.  Nevertheless  a  tendency  toward  unity 
is  there.  It  is  native  to  the  human  mind. 
Just  as  the  social  instinct  led  on  from  tribal  to 
national  organisation,  so  the  religious  impulse 
led  toward  the  subordination  of  some  gods  to 
others ;  and  just  as  the  national  consciousness 
even  in  our  day  is  broadening  out  into  a  con- 
sciousness of  humanity,  so  there  could  be  no 
final  rest  in  religious  development  short  of 
monotheism.  The  significance  of  this  discus- 
sion for  our  present  purpose  will  appear  as  we 
proceed.  We  shall  see  that  the  educator  needs 
to  know  both  how  the  child  himself  thinks  and 
feels,  and  also  what  inner  principle  or  tend- 
ency is  there  at  work. 
110.  Impulse  to  Religion  exists  at  all  be- 

Unification   of  r>     -,    ji  ^ 

One's  Self  and  cause  men  find  themselves 

One's  World.  and    their    world    standing 

over  against  each  other  in 
an  antithesis,  even  opposition,  that  needs  to  be 
resolved.  To  strive  to  reach  a  thought  that 
shall  include  the  self  and  the  world  is  to  begin 
to  philosophise.  But  before  the  philosophic 
impulse  becomes  aware  of  itself,  men  must 


I 


THE    RELIGIOUS    IMPULSE  201 

find  a  way  to  live  in  and  with  their  world  so 
that  human  ends  may  be  attained.  Thus  it  is 
that  in  nature,  or  above  nature,  they  seek  for 
a  power,  or  for  powers,  that  take  an  interest 
in  human  well  being.  This  involves  the  idea 
of  something  greater  and,  in  some  sense,  bet- 
ter, than  has  been  actually  experienced.  That 
is,  it  involves  the  notion  of  an  ideal  world 
over  against  or  alongside  of  the  real  world. 
This  ideal  may  be  only  slightly  in  advance  of 
the  actual  life  of  the  tribe ;  it  may  lack  what 
we  should  recognise  among  ourselves  as  eth- 
ical quality ;  yet  it  is  to  the  savage  a  superior 
thing,  a  higher  point  of  view.  It  expresses  a 
certain  divine  discontent  that  spurs  men  on  to 
seek  and  find  an  ever  higher  unity  of  them- 
selves and  their  world.  Moreover,  the  opposi- 
tion that  religion  seeks  to  solve  is  within  man 
as  well  as  between  him  and  nature.  Man 
never  regards  his  present  state  as  properly 
final;  self-judgment  pursues  him,  and  self- 
judgment  moves  upward  as  fast  as  one's  at- 
tainments increase.  The  religious  impulse  is 
thus  toward  the  progressive  unification  of  the 
man  with  himself,  his  fellows,  natura,  and  all 
that  is.  It  is  man 's  effort  to  be  at  home  in  his 
world  and  with  himself.^ 

^  This  is,   of  course,  only  a  description  of  the  religious 
Impulse.     The  explanation  of  it  would  require  a  reference 


202     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

111.  Four  Factors         To  be  more  specific,  the 

Involved.  ,.    .  .  ,  ,    , 

religious    impulse    contains 

the  following  factors : 

First,  a  more  or  less  clear  realisation  that 
we  are  limited  and  dependent.  Our  depend- 
ent relation  to  visible  things  is  first  recog- 
nised, but  both  the  idea  and  the  feeling  of 
dependence  tend  to  push  backward  beyond  all 
things  that  are  themselves  dependent  to  their 
ultimate  ground.  Thus,  implicitly  at  first,  and 
later  explicitly,  the  religious  impulse  contains 
what  Schleiermacher  called  the  sense  of  abso- 
lute dependence,  and  so  a  sense  of  the  ultimate 
unity  of  one's  self  and  one's  world. 

Second,  human  wants  always  outrun  their 
supply.  It  is  an  ultimate  fact  of  our  consti- 
tution that  we  can  always  think  more,  and 
that  desire  follows  the  thought.  How  much 
gratification  of  the  senses  does  it  take  to  sat- 
isfy a  man  ?  How  much  wealth,  power,  knowl- 
edge, honor,  affection?  How  much  of  any 
kind  of  good  whatsoever?  A  man  who  is  so 
satisfied  with  what  he  has  and  is  as  not  to 
want  to  attain  to  something  more  we  set  down 
at  once  as  abnormal;  he  is  diseased  in  body, 
mind,  or  character.     Buddhism,  recognising 

to  the  Logos  who  lighteneth  every  man.  Men  feel  after 
God  if  haply  they  may  find  him,  yet  all  the  while  it  la 
God  himself  who  inspires  the  search. 


THE    RELIGIOUS    IMPULSE  203 

the  fact  that  to  be  conscious  is  to  desire,  con- 
cludes that  complete  satisfaction  can  be  had 
only  in  unconsciousness.  But  this  is  a 
contradiction,  for  a  satisfaction  of  which  no 
one  is  conscious  is  not  satisfaction  at  all.  It 
is  evident,  then,  that  the  self-realisation  that 
men  seek  is,  implicitly  or  explicitly,  a  progress 
to  which  no  limits  can  be  assigned.  This  im- 
plies an  assumption  that  man's  essential  self 
is  an  ideal  self,  his  world  an  ideal  world  which 
presides  over  the  so-called  real  world,  and 
that  this  ideal  world  is  unitary  and  all-en- 
compassing. 

Third,  the  ideal  world  and  the  ideal  self 
here  implied  are  spontaneously  taken  as  the 
truly  real  self  and  the  truly  real  world  pri- 
marily because  of  the  strength  of  our  felt 
wants.  Imagination,  hope,  expectation,  rea- 
son, all  do  service  to  this  inner  propulsion. 
We  believe  in  God  primarily  because  we  need 
God.  This  does  not  mean  that  the  ideals  by 
which  individuals  and  societies  live  are  first 
abstractly  conceived  and  later  believed  to  be 
real.  Just  the  reverse;  they  are  at  first  con- 
crete beings  whom  early  man  believes  that  he 
actually  beholds  with  his  eyes.  It  has  taken  a 
long  history  and  a  considerable  amount  of  ab- 
stract thought  to  separate  between  our  ideals 


204     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

and  our  belief  in  their  reality  so  as  to  be  able 
to  ask  whether  the  gods  actually  exist.  Even 
now,  when  this  question  has  been  clearly 
asked,  the  immediate  demand  for  ideal  good  is 
more  influential  than  all  reasoning  in  forming 
our  religious  beliefs. 

Fourth,  the  specific  qualities  of  these  ideal 
beings  or,  as  it  comes  to  pass,  this  ideal  being, 
are  derived  from  our  human  experiences.  We 
could  not  understand  any  kind  of  superiority 
that  is  not  an  extension  of  something  that  has 
at  least  partially  appeared  within  us.  All 
gods  are  conceived  anthropomorphically ;  they 
are  idealised  men.  The  quality  that  is  ideal- 
ised may  be  power,  or  jealousy  for  the  tribe, 
or  fatherliness,  or  a  special  interest  like  agri- 
culture or  war,  but  it  is  always  human.  Chris- 
tianity puts  its  approval  upon  this  principle 
by  declaring  that  in  a  complete  human  life  we 
have  not  only  the  highest  but  also  an  adequate 
revelation  of  Grod. 

112.  The  Religious        A  word  or  two  will  now 

Impulse   in  the  -,     ,^  i-       •         ^ 

Child.  reveal    the    continuity    be- 

tween the  religious  impulse 
of  adults  and  of  children.  We  have  seen  that 
this  impulse,  in  its  most  general  aspect,  is  an 
outgoing  after  unity  between  the  self  and  its 
world.    A  new-born  infant  has,  of  course,  no 


THE    RELIGIOUS    IMPULSE  205 

definite  idea  of  either  its  self  or  its  world.  Yet 
the  process  of  securing  these  ideas  begins  at 
once,  if,  indeed,  it  did  not  begin  before  birth. 
He  acquires  both  ideas  chiefly  through  the 
active  putting  forth  of  his  powers.  The  im- 
pulsive movements  of  arms  and  legs,  for  ex- 
ample, are  early  steps  in  what,  if  it  were  in- 
tentionally done,  might  be  described  as  an  ex- 
pedition of  exploration  and  discovery.  Each 
new  experience  of  the  w^orld  is  likewise  a  new 
revelation  of  the  self.  Further,  in  and  through 
these  experiences  runs  demand  of  one  sort  and 
another— for  food,  for  activity,  for  the  satis- 
faction of  curiosity,  for  companionship,  and 
so  on.  Very  soon  all  three  factors,  a  world,  a 
self,  and  a  demand,  become  dimly  explicit,  as 
they  have  been  implicit  from  the  start.  And 
not  only  does  the  child  differentiate  himself 
from  objects  and  make  demands  upon  them, 
but  also,  through  memory,  expectation,  and 
disappointed  hopes,  he  begins  to  construct  an 
ideal  world  alongside  the  world  of  actual  ex- 
perience. For  a  long  time  the  ideal  is  exceed- 
ingly crude,  and  the  feelings  accompanying 
it  lack  the  depth  of  what  we  are  accustomed 
to  call  spiritual.  But  what  if  the  baby's  ideal 
world  is  made  up  of  imaginary  foods  and  toys 
and  beings  subject  to  his  whims?    His  situa- 


208     EDUCATION   IN   RELIGION  AND  MORALS 

tion  is  not  worse  than  that  of  early  man,  and 
the  same  idealising  principle  is  at  work  in  both 
eases.  In  both  cases  that  which  is  natural 
comes  first,  and  then  that  which  is  spiritual. 
Only  large  experience  of  life  can  reveal  to  an 
individual  or  to  the  race  what  is  the  meaning 
of  the  struggle  to  live,  and  to  live  well.  The  re- 
ligious principle  is  at  work,  in  fact,  in  all  that 
goes  to  make  up  human  experience.  The  very 
first  impressions  that  the  child  gets  of  his 
world,  his  first  glimmering  sense  of  self,  his 
earliest  sense  of  need,  all  these  begin  to  form 
his  view  of  the  world  and  his  attitude  toward 
life.  In  a  word,  the  personal  interpretation 
of  experience  advances  step  by  step  with  ex- 
perience itself. 

113.  When  This  enables  us  to  answer 

Should    Education      ,,  ,.  ,i     .     • 

in  Religion  ^^^  question  that  IS  some- 

Begin?  times  asked.  When  should 

religious  training  begin  ? 
Some  persons  would  begin  it  as  soon  as  lan- 
guage is  acquired;  others  oppose  all  religious 
training  of  the  young  on  the  ground  that  re- 
ligion should  be  a  matter  of  deliberate  and 
rational  choice,  which  is  not  possible  before 
manhood  is  reached.  Both  these  views  rest  on 
two  false  assumptions.  The  first  is  the  intel- 
lectualist  view  of  man,  which  makes  life  grow 


THE    RELIGIOUS    IMPULSE  207 

out  of  knowledge  rather  than  knowledge  out 
of  life.  The  other  is  the  notion  that  training 
with  respect  to  religion  can  be  postponed  to 
some  particular  period  of  life.  Not  for  a 
single  year  does  the  mind  remain  neutral  or 
blank  with  reference  to  the  interpretation  of 
life.  Impressions  are  already  leading  to  re- 
actions of  both  an  emotional  and  a  motor  sort, 
and  these  reactions  are  already  forming  into 
habits.  To  such  habits  there  is  also  an  in- 
tellectual side,  or  the  meaning,  more  or  less 
articulate,  which  the  world  and  life  are  be- 
ginning to  have.  Very  early,  too,  the  child 
witnesses  specific  religious  phenomena.  We 
cannot  hide  from  him  our  churches,  our  sa- 
cred books,  our  worship.  The  real  question, 
then,  is  never,  When  shall  his  religious  train- 
ing begin?  for  it  really  begins  with  the  be- 
ginning of  experience,  and  it  goes  forward 
with  experience.  The  real  question  is.  What 
kind  shall  it  be  ?  Shall  it  be  positive  or  nega- 
tive, symmetrical  or  distorted,  repressive  or 
emancipating  ? 


CHAPTER  XIII 

HOW  THE  IMPULSE  DEVELOPS 

114.  General  The  first  beginning  of  the 

Direction  of  t    .  ,        ,  ,       . 

Development.  religious     development     m 

both  the  race  and  the  in- 
dividual is  exceedingly  humble.  Apparently 
there  is  just  a  jumble  of  likes  and  dislikes, 
desires  and  efforts,  all  directed  to  particular 
visible  things,  and  all  having  their  immedi- 
ate reference  to  physical  needs.  The  ideal 
and  unifying  element  of  the  religious  im- 
pulse is  not  yet  conscious  of  itself,  but  blind 
and  unformed.  Such  is  the  beginning;  what 
now  is  the  goal,  and  how  shall  development 
be  recognised?  An  impulse  develops  when 
the  range  or  depth  of  its  control  increases, 
when  the  activities  to  which  it  leads  become 
a  habit,  and  when  the  impulse  itself  rises 
from  the  level  of  mere  impulse  to  that  of  a 
principle  rationally  approved  and  deliber- 
ately adopted  as  a  method  of  life. 

The  goal  of  religious  development  includes 
all  these,  not  merely  a  part  of  them.     Ra- 


HOW  THE  IMPULSE  DEVELOPS      209 

tional  approval  of  religion  or  of  Christianity 
is  not  enough,  nor  even  deliberate  choice 
thereof.  How  often  has  all  this  failed  to  is- 
sue in  steady  religious  living.  On  the  other 
hand,  mere  habit  in  the  absence  of  rational 
reflection  tends  to  become  mechanical,  and  ul- 
timately to  hinder  growth.  Again,  there  may 
be  wide  range  of  religious  interest,  but  shal- 
lowness, as,  on  the  other  hand,  there  may  be 
intensity  and  depth,  but  narrowness.  Breadth, 
depth,  habit,  insight,  deliberate  choice— all 
are  to  be  aimed  at.  This  follows  not  only 
from  our  observation  of  incomplete  religious 
characters,  but  also  from  the  nature  of  the 
religious  impulse.  Religion  demands  com- 
plete unity  of  life.  It  reaches  out  to  every- 
thing, and  down  to  the  bottom  of  everything ; 
it  includes  our  whole  mental  equipment  and 
activity,  whether  of  thought,  of  emotion,  or  of 
will.  Stating  this  in  the  concrete  terms  of  the 
Christian  view  of  life,  we  may  say  that  the 
outcome  to  be  looked  for  in  the  religious  train- 
ing of  the  young  is  that,  through  both  habit 
and  choice,  the  life  should  be  completely  con- 
trolled by  Jesus'  principle  of  love  to  God  and 
man,  and  that  one  should  see  and  feel  that 
this  principle  gives  to  life  its  meaning  and 
value. 


210     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION  AND   MORALS 

115.  Internal  and  The  primary    factor    in 

External    Factors.  i       j        i  j.     • 

any    such    development    is 

the  child's  own  impulse,  which  we  have 
already  agreed  to  regard  as  the  utterance 
of  the  Divine  Spirit  within  him.  But, 
left  to  itself,  this  impulse  will  no  more  grow 
than  will  a  seed  that  is  deprived  of  moisture. 
It  is  ordained  that  man  should  depend  upon 
man,  and  that  the  revelation  of  God  to  men 
should  come  through  the  interactions  of  men 
with  one  another.  If  an  American  child  be 
reared  from  earliest  infancy  by  savages,  he 
grows  up  savage,  not  civilised;  if  he  should 
grow  up  among  wild  beasts  he  would  fall 
short  of  the  knowledge,  the  morals,  and  the 
religion  even  of  savages.  The  importance  of 
the  external  factor  in  education,  then,  is  meas- 
ured by  nothing  less  than  the  distance  be- 
tween what  children  in  a  Christian  environ- 
ment actually  become,  and  what  they  would 
become  if  they  grew  up  in  isolation  from  hu- 
manity. Not,  indeed,  that  education  bestows 
all  this,  but  rather  that  it  furnishes  essential 
conditions  for  the  growth  of  the  native  im- 
pulse. God's  way  of  making  men  is  through 
men.  It  is  civilisation  that  makes  children 
civilised;  it  is  existing  religion  that  makes 
children  grow  in  religion.    The  only  qualifica- 


HOW  THE  IMPULSE  DEVELOPS     211 

tion  that  need  be  made  to  this  statement  grows 
out  of  the  fact  that  civilisation  itself  proceeds 
in  large  measure  from  the  religious  impulse. 
Yet  civilisation  is  of  slow  growth  precisely 
because  each  individual  of  any  generation  is 
made  what  he  is  chiefly  by  the  other  individ- 
uals who  surround  him.  An  individual  may 
be  in  advance  of  his  times,  yet  only  within 
limits.  The  greatest  leader  in  any  age  is  yet 
a  product  of  his  age.  Thus,  while  the  re- 
ligious impulse  is  an  original  endowment  of 
each  of  us,  and  while  an  individual  may  sur- 
pass the  limits  of  his  training,  nevertheless, 
each  individual  owes  his  general  religious  de- 
velopment to  the  influences  of  the  community 
in  which  he  is  raised. 

116.  The  Theory  What  and  how  much  can 

of    Recapitulation.     ,        ,  „  v-u      i 

*^  be  done  for  a  child  at  any 

period  of  growth,  however,  depends  upon  in- 
ternal factors.  The  religious  impulse  has  laws 
of  its  own.  One  of  these  laws  is  found  in  the 
general  parallel  between  the  development  of 
the  child  and  the  history  of  the  race.  As  the 
human  body  before  birth  passes  through  a  se- 
ries of  forms  that  correspond  in  the  main  to 
ascending  embryonic  forms  of  animal  life  in 
general,  so,  after  birth,  the  mind  progresses 
toward  maturity  through  stages  that  corre- 


212     EDUCATION  IN   RELIGION  AND  MORALS 

spond  roughly  to  the  stages  of  human  history 
in  the  large.  In  a  certain  modified  sense,  the 
child  is  first  a  savage,  then  a  barbarian,  and 
finally  a  civilised  being.^  This  is  called  the 
theory  of  the  recapitulation  of  racial  history 
by  the  individual.  Its  general  correctness 
there  appears  to  be  no  good  reason  for  doubt- 
ing. The  fact  was  noted  generations  ago,  and 
it  was  clearly  stated  by  some  of  the  great 
educators,  notably  Froebel.  The  discoveries 
of  biology  in  the  last  half  century  have  served 
to  confirm  it,  and  to  call  renewed  attention  to 
it  on  the  part  of  educators.  The  question 
naturally  arises  whether  we  have  not  here  a 
clue  to  the  natural  order  of  child-development, 
and  also  a  principle  for  the  selection  of  ma- 
terial. 

117.  Its  Contribu-         This      theory      certainly 

tion  to  Education.     ,     , 

helps  us  to  secure  perspec- 
tive with  reference  to  the  phenomena  of  child 
life.  We  are  reminded  that  "the  child"  is  not 
a  being  having  fixed  qualities,  but  one  that 
is  continually  outgrowing  itself.  We  are  bet- 
ter able  to  judge  what  is  normal  and  what 
abnormal  at  any  period.  We  learn  that  the 
child  naturally  outgrows  many  traits  that  we 

'  See  articles  by  Van  Liew  and  others  In  the  first  and 
second  year  books  of  the  Herbart  Society  (Chicago : 
University  of  Chicago  Press). 


HOW    THE    IMPULSE    DEVELOPS  213 

should  not  wish  to  have  perpetuated.  We 
cease  to  measure  his  conduct  at  one  period 
by  the  standards  of  a  later  period.  "We  learn 
to  tolerate  and  even  approve  much  that  our 
forefathers,  comparing  children's  conduct 
with  adult  standards,  felt  constrained  to  con- 
demn. A  striking  example  of  this  change  is 
the  new  attitude  toward  the  fights  of  little 
boys.  Many,  probably  most,  students  of  ped- 
agogy to-day  look  upon  such  fights  as  within 
limits  an  expression  of  a  normal  and  proper 
impulse.  Again,  the  theory  of  recapitulation 
enables  us  to  appreciate  as  never  before  cer- 
tain spontaneous  interests  of  children  and 
youth.  We  fijid  a  new  meaning,  for  example, 
in  boys'  "gangs"  when  we  discover  how  close- 
ly they  resemble  the  tribal  form  of  human  or- 
ganisation. Similarly,  the  temporarily  ab- 
sorbing interest  in  exploration,  hunting,  or 
mimic  war  at  certain  ages  becomes  illumi- 
nated. 

118.  Limits  of  its  Qn  the  Other  hand,  how- 

ever, any  effort  to  deduce  a 
system  of  religious  education  from  the  theory 
of  recapitulation  is  fatally  short-sighted.  It 
assumes  that  the  internal  factor  in  develop- 
ment is  practically  self-sufficient,  and  it  con- 
ceives this  factor  as  a  mere  push  from  be- 


214     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

hind,  an  impetus  which  the  individual  receives 
from  the  past  of  the  race.  Now  and  then  an 
educator  appears  to  be  chiefly  anxious  that 
the  process  of  recapitulation  should  have  full 
swing;  that  the  child  should  be  a  complete 
savage,  then  a  complete  barbarian,  and  that 
natural  instinct  should  bear  complete  sway. 
In  this  way,  it  is  believed,  he  will  most  surely 
attain  to  a  high  civilisation  in  the  end.  This 
is  not  altogether  untrue,  but  it  is  one-sided. 
The  racial  push  from  behind  never  enabled 
a  child  to  attain  to  civilisation  in  an  environ- 
ment of  beasts  or  savages.  How  far  the  child 
shall  go  in  the  process  of  recapitulation  de- 
pends chiefly  upon  the  kind  of  environment 
in  which  he  is  placed.  Further,  a  high  en- 
vironment does  not  first  become  effective  after 
the  child  has  passed  through  earlier  stages  of 
culture;  it  is  effective  from  the  beginning. 
For  the  whole  life  of  a  civilised  child,  after 
earliest  infancy,  is  different  from  that  of  a 
savage  child.  The  two  start  at  the  same  point, 
but  the  contrasting  environments  quickly 
produce  great  differences  in  development. 

119.  A  Case  in  Por  an  example,  we  may 

Point.  ,  -,    o     . 

compare  the  acts  and  feel- 
ings connected  with  eating  on  the  part  of  an 
American  child  of  five  years  and  a  savage 


HOW  THE  IMPULSE  DEVELOPS      215 

child  of  equal  age.  The  savage  child  grabs 
a  morsel  in  his  hand,  and  devours  it  much  as 
our  cats  and  dogs  devour  the  food  that  we 
throw  to  them.  His  manners  are  in  no  ap- 
preciable degree  socialised,  his  person  is 
filthy,  and  he  has  no  desire  to  have  it  other- 
wise. His  feelings  are  as  coarse  as  his  acts. 
Now,  it  may  well  be  that  the  civilised  child's 
feelings  have  not  kept  perfect  pace  with  the 
imitative  process  by  which  he  has  acquired 
some  refinement  of  manners,  yet,  on  the»whole, 
his  feelings  as  well  as  his  conduct  are  already 
largely  civilised.  He  dislikes  filth,  he  has 
a  positive  appreciation  of  order,  and  he  ac- 
tually shares  in  the  family  spirit  of  mutual 
regard  one  for  another.  All  this  has  been 
attained,  moreover,  without  undue  pressure 
from  the  parents.  He  finds  at  least  as  full 
self-expression  in  the  neatness,  order,  and 
good  manners  of  the  family  table  as  the  sav- 
age child  does  in  his  own  uncouth  mode  of 
eating  a  meal.  Recapitulation,  then,  does  not 
imply,  that  each  child  reproduces  the  stages 
of  human  history,  or  that  he  must  wait,  as 
the  race  did,  for  any  special  degree  of  fitness 
before  he  is  introduced  to  the  higher  forms 
of  life. 


216     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 


120.  What  is  a  The  fact  is  that,  from  the 

Childhood?  Start,  little  by  little,  chil- 

dren assimilate  the  highest 
elements  of  their  environment.  They  do  it  nat- 
urally, too,  without  forcing.  To  suppose  that 
the  natural  child  is  the  child  as  he  would  be 
in  the  absence  of  all  influence  from  our  adult 
convictions  as  to  what  is  true  and  good,  is  to 
substitute  for  concrete  children  a  mere  ab- 
straction. What  is  natural  to  childhood  is 
revealed,  not  by  what  happens  in  the  absence 
of  food,  but  in  the  presence  of  abundant  food. 
If  recapitulation  were  the  sole  basis  of  reli- 
gious nurture,  we  should  be  obliged  deliber- 
ately to  withhold  ourselves  from  children  in 
order  that  their  environment  might  be  meagre 
enough  to  fit  their  stage  of  culture.  But  the 
truth  is  that,  if  forcing  and  pressure  be 
avoided,  a  child  who  is  in  contact  with 
mature  life  develops  with  perfect  naturalness 
while  constantly  absorbing  elements  of  the 
higher  culture. 

Yet  the  fact  of  recapitulation  remains  as  a 
background  of  the  whole  process.  The  child's 
spontaneous  interest  will  not  extend  equally 
to  all  parts  of  the  higher  life  with  which  he 
is  in  contact,  nor  will  he  assimilate  any  part 
of  it  completely  until  he  reaches  maturity. 


HOW  THE  IMPULSE  DEVELOPS      211 

For  example  he  will  be  attracted  at  one 
period  to  heroism  and  self-sacrifice  in  the 
form  of  what  is  called  physical  courage,  at 
another  in  the  form  of  philanthropies.  At 
both  periods,  however,  he  may  be  under  the 
positive  influence  of  civilised  and  even  Chris- 
tian ideals. 

121.  The  Absorb"  In  this  way  the  religious 

•nt   Power  of  .  ,  ,  ,       , 

Childhood.  impulse  may  have  a  truly 

Christian  character  through 
all  stages  of  its  development.  It  acquires  this 
character,  not  by  first  knowing  and  then  do- 
ing, but  by  first  doing  and  then  knowing.  It 
begins  with  habits  which  at  first  mean  a  little, 
but  later  a  great  deal,  and  so  there  is  carried 
forward  what  has  been  called  the  progressive 
re-interpretation  of  experience.  For  example, 
under  the  good  old  custom  of  family  worship, 
the  whole  family  engaged  in  the  same  reli- 
gious exercise.  Certainly  this  exercise  had  a 
different  meaning  for  each  member.  To  old 
age,  already  catching  glimpses  of  the  deep- 
shadowed  valley,  the  Scripture  lesson  and  the 
prayer  meant  one  thing ;  to  middle  age,  bear- 
ing the  heat  and  burden  of  the  day,  another; 
to  youth,  with  its  golden  dreams,  still  another. 
Different  needs,  different  feelings,  different 
kinds  of  strength  centered  around  the  same 


218     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

act  of  worship.  Nor  did  the  adaptation  end 
here,  for  the  little  child  put  his  own  meaning 
into  family  prayer,  just  as  the  other  members 
of  the  family  did.  To  him  it  was  not  artificial 
unless  it  was  perfunctory— and  so  artificial— 
to  his  elders  also.  The  child  feels  reality 
where  his  elders  feel  it,  though  he  feels  it 
differently.  When  just  a  little  thought  is 
taken  to  adapt  idea  and  phraseology  in  fam- 
ily worship  to  the  child,  his  participation 
therein  is  full  and  real;  the  exercise  then 
grows  in  meaning  with  the  growth  of  his  ex- 
perience, and  so  it  remains  an  educational 
force  through  all  stages  of  growth. 

122.  Religious  Recapitulation,  then,  may 

S:::' °a'n""of  °'  take  place  within  a  high 
Child  Compared.  religion,  and  not  merely  as 
a  preliminary  to  it.  Here 
we  have  an  essential  contrast  between  the 
religious  development  of  the  child  and  that 
of  the  race.  The  religion  of  the  race  began 
with  nature-worship  and  ghost-worship  ad- 
dressed to  many  gods,  and  in  only  the  faintest 
degree  was  it  ethical.  Only  through  long 
struggle  did  the  gods  become  clear  embodi- 
ments of  moral  ideals,  and  only  here  and 
there  was  monotheism  attained  at  all.  Now, 
it  is  true  that  children  are  at  first  animists; 


HOW    THE    IMPULSE    DEVELOPS  219 

they  interpret  all  nature  by  means  of  what 
they  feel  in  themselves.  It  is  also  true  that  in 
very  early  life  hob-goblins  are  easily  believed 
in.  Between  these  beliefs  and  the  religious 
beliefs  absorbed  from  elders  there  is,  of 
course,  no  absolute  dividing  line.  Animistic 
ideas  are  freely  used  in  the  interpretation  of 
religion.  A  little  girl  explained  thunder  as 
"God  rolling  barrels  up  in  heaven."  Other 
children  have  thought  of  God  as  a  carpenter, 
a  juggler,  a  preternaturally  big  man,  and  so 
on.^  I  believe  it  was  John  Fiske  who,  in 
childhood,  imagined  God  as  an  aged  book- 
keeper leaning  over  his  desk  up  in  the  sky 
and  looking  down  to  see  how  little  children 
conduct  themselves  in  order  that  he  might 
record  all  their  demerits. 

But,  for  all  that,  in  no  strict  sense  do  such 
children  pass  through  a  period  of  nature- 
worship  or  ghost- worship.  For,  fit'st,  chil- 
dren's sense  of  dependence  is  directed  chiefly 
to  the  parents  rather  than  to  nature  or  to 
imaginary  beings.  The  motives  which  made 
early  men  worship  as  they  did  centered  large- 
ly in  anxiety  regarding  the  food  supply  and 
protection  from  the  rigors  of  nature,   from 

*  Sully  gives  an  entertaining  list  of  such  Ideas.  See 
James  Sullv  :  Studies  of  Childhood  (New  York,  1900), 
pages  120-132,  and  506-513. 


220     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

wild  beasts,  and  from  hostile  tribes.  This 
anxiety  was  communicated  from  parent  to 
child.  But  in  modern  civilised  life  these  prob- 
lems have  been  practically  solved.  The  pa- 
rent is  no  longer  anxious,  for  he  has  an  ade- 
quate supply,  and  so  he  takes  the  place  in 
the  child-mind  that  nature-gods  occupied  in 
the  primitive  mind.  In  the  second  place,  the 
environment  of  the  child-mind  of  to-day  is 
profoundly  ditferent  from  that  of  primitive 
man.  We  rightly  speak  of  early  man  as  being 
in  a  condition  of  childhood.  This  implies  that 
the  mind  of  each  primitive  child  grew  up 
among  childish  minds — minds  that  merely 
reinforced  a  child's  spontaneous  notions  of 
nature.  Thus  the  influence  of  nature  was  at 
a  maximum,  and  that  of  persons  at  a  mini- 
mum. But,  in  proportion  as  men  advanced 
toward  civilisation,  the  environment  of  per- 
sons acquired  more  influence  over  the  child's 
mental  life.  When  religion  becomes  predom- 
inantly ethical,  it  no  longer  reinforces  child- 
ish notions  of  nature,  but  turns  the  child's 
attention  at  once  toward  the  regulation  of 
personal  relationships.  Children's  grotesque 
notions  of  God  are  not  spontaneous  and  self- 
evolved  ;  they  can  be  traced  directly  to  defec- 
tive teaching,  as  in  the  case  of  John  Fiske's 


HOW  THE  IMPULSE  DEVELOPS      221 

bookkeeper-god.  And  even  in  such  notions, 
of  which  the  bookkeeper-god  is  a  good  illus- 
tration, we  commonl}'-  find  that  the  ethical 
element  has  already  been  introduced.  In 
general,  then,  the  religious  impulse,  under 
proper  conditions,  may  be  expected  to  move 
directly  from  attachment  felt  for  earthly 
parents  to  reverence  for  the  Heavenly  Father. 
The  child's  conceptions  of  the  Heavenly 
Father  will  be  crude,  of  course,  but  they  need 
never  have  the  rude  qualities  of  all  early 
gods. 

123.  Sketch  of  Leaving  out    of    account 

Normal    Religious      o       ^^  .    .1       p 

Development.  ^^r  the  moment  the  formal 

or  instructional  side  of  re- 
ligious training,  let  us  try  to  sketch  the  ef- 
fect of  normal  relations  between  a  child  and 
his  elders.  The  mother  or  nurse  begins  the 
work  of  training  the  moral  and  religious  na- 
ture by  her  gentle,  regular,  hygienic  response 
to  the  infant's  physical  needs.^  Here  begins 
the  revelation  of  love,  human  and  divine,  as 

1  See  J.  G.  Compayre :  The  Intellectual  and  Moral  De- 
velopment of  the  Child  (New  York,  1896),  Part  I,  pages 
168  f.,  and  193  (note)  :  also  G.  Stanley  Hall  :  Article  on 
Moral  and  Religious  Training,  etc.,  in  the  Pedagogical 
Seminary,  volume  I.  page  199.  Froebel  remarks  :  "Pure 
human,  parental  and  filial  relations  are  the  key,  the  first 
condition,  of  that  heavenly,  divine,  fatherly,  and  filial 
relation  and  life,  of  a  genuine  Christian  life  In  thought 
and  action." — Education  of  Man  (New  York,  1888),  Sec- 
tion 61.     See,  also,  sections  21  and   88. 


222     EDUCATION   IN   RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

the  meaning  of  life,  and  of  law  and  order 
as  the  method  of  love.  The  infant  soon  dis- 
covers that  his  wants  are  ministered  to  by 
the  moving,  speaking  objects  that  we  call  per- 
sons. His  world  is  a  world  of  persons,  and 
supreme  among  them  are  the  parents.  His 
sense  of  dependence  upon  them  is  the  reli- 
gious impulse  in  its  earliest  stage.^  In  some 
cases,  probably  many,  an  attitude  toward  a 
parent  that  is  indistinguishable  from  wor- 
ship develops  in  the  early  years.  It  Avould 
be  strange  if  it  were  not  so.^  I  have  in  my 
possession  an  account  of  a  gentleman  who 
still  remembered  the  occasion  on  which  he  dis- 
covered that  his  father  and  God  were  not  the 
same  being.  This  corresponds,  no  doubt,  to 
nature- worship  in  the  race.  But  quickly  there 
springs  up  a  contrast  between  the  parent  and 
an  ideal  being.  For  the  child's  demands  out- 
run the  supply  which  the  parent  can  or  will 
provide.  Nevertheless,  for  a  long  time  the 
parent  continues  to  be  the  nearest  represen- 

1  "I  don't  need  to  pray  to-niglit,"  said  a  little  child, 
"for  papa  is  going  to  sleep   with  me." 

2  "The  moment  when  the  baby's  mind  first  passes  on 
from  the  sight  of  his  bottle  to  a  foregrasplng  or  imagi- 
nation of  the  blisses  of  prehension  and  deglutition  .  .  . 
marks  an  epoch  in  his  existence.  .  .  .  This  Is  the 
moment  at  which  .  .  .  'mind  rises  above  the  limi- 
tations of  the  actual,  and  begins  to  shape  for  itself  an 
Ideal  world  of  possibilities.'  " — James  Sully  :  Studies  of 
Childhood  (New  York  1900),  page  405. 


HOW  THE  IMPULSE  DEVELOPS      223 

tative  of  ideal  being  that  the   chiki  knows. 

The  possibility  of  religious  development  is 
provided  for  in  the  fact  that  the  child's  de- 
mands thus  reach  out  into  an  ideal  world. 
A  place  is  here  prepared  for  the  idea  of  divin- 
ity, and  constant  contact  with  the  parents' 
religious  life  furnishes  content  for  the  idea 
as  rapidly  as  the  child  can  assimilate  it.  His 
religious  ideas  and  attitudes  will  grow  with 
the  developing  sense  of  need.  Demand  for 
the  supply  of  merely  physical  needs  is  fol- 
lowed by  demand  for  knowledge.  The  age  of 
curiosity,  of  free  imagination,  of  fairy  tale, 
reproduces  something  of  the  myth-making 
stage  of  religion  in  general.  The  incomplete- 
ness of  the  parents'  response  to  the  question- 
asking  impulse  permits  the  child-mind  to  pass 
on  toward  the  ideal  of  a  being  who  can  answer 
all  questions. 

After  the  question-asking  age  comes  a 
period  in  which  conscience  and  the  sense 
of  law  become  more  prominent.  At  first 
the  family  is  the  moral  universe  of  the 
child.  The  parents  are  discovered  to  possess 
not  only  power  to  supply  hunger,  and  knowl- 
edge to  supply  curiosity,  but  also  authority 
to  command  the  will.  Yet  the  still  greater 
discovery  is  made  that  the  parents  are  not  the 


224     EDUCATION   IN   RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

source  of  law,  but  subjects  of  it,  and  so  the 
child  projects  into  his  ideal  world  a  supreme 
moral  will.^ 

At  length  comes  the  adolescent  period, 
with  its  blossoming  of  the  social  instinct, 
and  its  tendencies  to  deeper  feeling  and 
broader  outlook.  The  child  who  is  just 
becoming  a  man  looks  out  into  his  new  world 
seeking  complete  expression  for  his  new  im- 
pulses. He  finds  society  a  mixture  of  love 
and  hate,  of  self-sacrifice  and  self-seeking,  of 
greatness  and  littleness,  of  beauty  and  ugli- 
ness, of  truth  and  falsehood.  He  flees  once 
more  to  the  ideal  being  that  has  hovered  over 
his  whole  experience,  and  attributes  to  it  all 
power,  all  truth,  all  beauty,  and  all  love.  God 
is  no  longer  mere  power,  wisdom,  and  moral 
will ;  he  is  the  universal  Father,  and  his  king- 
dom becomes  the  one  object  of  complete  worth 
in  the  world.  The  youth  now  takes  God  as 
his  portion  in  a  new  and  deeper  sense,  and 
enlists  as  a  soldier  of  the  kingdom.  Yet  here, 
as  at  all  earlier  stages,  this  ideal  side  of  the 
nature  is  called  out  and  fed  by  the  personal 
elements  of  the  environment,  by  the  ideal 
qualities  of  parents,  of  friends,  of  the  Christ. 

^  See  .1.  Mark  Baldwin  :  Social  and  Ethical  Interpreta- 
tions In  Mental  Development  (New  York,  1897),  pages 
327fif. 


HOW    THE    IMPULSE    DEVELOPS  225 

In  this  whole  development  three  principles 
are  manifest:  First,  the  soil  of  all  religious 
seed-planting-  and  growth  is  the  spontaneous 
idealising  of  life.  Second,  the  ideal  qualities 
manifested  by  persons  interpret  the  child's 
idealising  impulse  to  himself  and  give  it  spe- 
cific content,  while  the  faith  of  the  child  in 
the  reality  of  ideal  being  is  reinforced  by  the 
living  faith  of  his  elders.  Third,  the  instruc- 
tional element  in  this  development  comes  in 
as  a  needed  interpretation  of  what  is  already 
a  reality  to  the  child. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

PERIODS  OP  DEVELOPMENT:     INFANCY  AND 
CHILDHOOD 

124.  Our  Deficient  In   gpite  of  the  great  ad- 

Knowledge    of  •  T    -1  T  11 

Childhood.  vance    m    ehild-psychology 

during  the  last  twenty 
years,  our  insight  into  the  growth  of  the  mind 
is  still  very  far  from  being  complete.  The 
ideal  is  to  secure  a  history  of  the  experience 
of  a  normal  child  as  that  experience  appears 
to  the  child  himself.  Now,  though  our  reminis- 
cences of  our  childhood  are  of  some  worth, 
they  are  scanty  and  beset  with  illusions  of 
memory.  On  the  other  hand,  our  observations 
of  children  are  beset  with  a  tendency  to  in- 
terpret childhood  activities  and  words  as 
though  they  meant  the  same  to  the  child  as 
they  do  when  they  occur  in  our  own  lives. 
This  is  an  instance  of  what  is  called  "the 
psychologist's  fallacy",  or  attributing  our 
own  states  of  mind  to  others  (whether  ani- 
mals or  men)  whenever  they  perform  the  same 
acts  that  we  do.  A  good  example  has  already 
been  given  in  the  misinterpretation  of  chil- 
dren's "lies"  and  "cruelty."  In  particular,  it 


PERIODS   OF   DEVELOPMENT  227 

is  essential  to  remember  that  the  young  mind 
is  relatively  undifferentiated;  it  simply  does 
not  have  the  sharply  defined  mental  states 
that  we  experience  in  ourselves.  We  are  not 
to  think  of  it  as  a  miniature  reason,  a  minia- 
ture will,  and  a  miniature  conscience,  but 
rather  as  a  simpler  personality  which  is  in 
process  of  organising  itself  into  reason,  con- 
science, and  will.^ 

125.  The  Periods  In  a  rough  way,  however, 

it  is  possible  to  detect  the 
chief  periods  of  growth  and  some  of  the 
characteristics  of  each.  Before  maturity  is 
reached,  two  main  periods,  each  with  sub- 
divisions, are  lived  through.  The  earlier, 
comprising  infancy  and  childhood,  extends 
to  the  age  of  about  twelve;  the  later, 
called  adolescence  or  youth,  covers  the  next 
ten  or  twelve  years.  The  subdivisions  of  the 
first  period  are  as  follows:  Infancy,  to 
the  age  of  six ;  early  childhood,  six  to  eight  or 
nine;  and  later  childhood,  eight  or  nine  to 
twelve  or  thirteen.  In  general,  the  period  of 
childhood  ends  with  girls  about  a  year  earlier 
than  with  boys,  and  the  period  of  adolescence 
two  or  three  years  earlier.     The  subdivisions 

^  See    Irving  King :   The   Psychology  of  Child-Develop- 
ment (Chicago,  1903). 


228     EDUCATION   IN   RELIGION  ANt)  MORALS 

of    adolescence    will   be    given    in    the    next 
chapter. 

Concerning  the  periods  of  growth  two  re- 
marks must  now  be  made.  The  first  is  that 
thus  far  the  present  work  has  employed  the 
term  ''child"  to  designate  simply  the  imma- 
ture human  being,  no  line  being  drawn,  except 
now  and  then,  between  childhood  in  the  nar- 
rower sense  and  adolescence.  From  this  point 
on  the  technical  sense  of  "childhood",  as  des- 
ignating the  period  between  infancy  and  ado- 
lescence, must  be  borne  in  mind,  else  confu- 
sion between  the  narrower  and  the  wider  use 
may  occur.  A  second  needed  remark  is  that 
the  periods  of  growth  are  generally  not 
sharply  marked  at  their  boundaries  in  respect 
either  to  time  or  to  mental  traits.  Some  in- 
dividuals pass  through  a  given  stage  more 
rapidly  than  others,  and  so  the  figures  just 
given  must  be  understood  to  represent  simply 
a  rough  overage.  Further,  the  mental  traits 
of  any  period  make  their  appearance  grad- 
ually rather  than  suddenly,  though  there  are 
plenty  of  exceptions  to  this  rule.  As  a  graphic 
representation  of  mental  growth,  therefore, 
neither  an  inclined  straight  line,  nor  a  broken 
line  like  the  profile  of  a  stairway,  would  be 


PERIODS   OF   DEVELOPMENT  229 

true  to  the  facts,  but  rather  a  wavy  line  that 
is  a  mean  between  the  two.^ 

126.  Point  of  Our    present    task   is   to 

Infancy.  point  out  the  chief  mental 

traits  and  spontaneous  in- 
terests that  offer  a  leverage  to  religious  and 
moral  influences  at  the  successive  stages.  In 
the  period  of  infancy,  three  points  of  leverage 
are  discernible.  First,  as  already  indicated, 
physical  needs  can  be  ministered  to  in  such 
a  way  as  to  reveal  love  as  the  moving  force  in 
persons,  and  law  and  order  as  the  method  of 
love.  Second,  after  language  has  been  ac- 
quired, the  parent,  and  later  the  kindergart- 
ner  can  color  the  infant 's  moral  sky  by  means 
of  appropriate  simple  stories.  Such  stories 
should  have  no  moral  attached,  but  their 
cumulative  effect  should  be  to  represent  the 
truth  of  life.  Third,  the  play  impulse  lends 
itself,  through  imitation,  to  the  culture  of 
social  qualities.  In  the  plays  of  the  kinder- 
garten, habits  of  co-operation,  of  giving,  of 
submission  to  a  social  whole,  are  formed.  The 
same  habits  can  be  formed  in  a  well-regulated 
home  also.     Merely  to  do  for  a  child  rather 

1  A  general  discussion  of  periods  of  growth  will  be 
found  in  A.  F.  Chamberlain:  The  Child  (London,  1901). 
Chapter  IV,  and  in  Samuel  B.  Haslett  :  The  Pedagogical 
Bible  School  (New  York,  1903),  Part  II. 


230     EDUCATION   IN   RELIGION  AND   MORALS 

than  with  him;  to  make  the  whole  household 
revolve  about  him,  is  to  prevent  him  from 
being  a  real  member  of  the  family,  for  a  mem- 
ber both  gives  and  receives. 

127.  Point  of  In   early   childhood    (six 

Contact  in   Early       .        •    ^  ,  •       \       i 

Childhood:   (1)         to  eight  or  nine),  character- 

The  Social  Order,  training  proceeds  by  meth- 
ods that  are  similar,  yet 
more  developed.  First,  the  child's  relation  to 
parental  feeding  and  care,  to  the  necessary 
law  and  order  of  the  household,  and  to  play- 
mates, now  involves  rules  which  the  child  him- 
self recognises  as  binding.  He  is  already 
beyond  the  control  of  mere  unreflective  im- 
pulse, and  there  begins  a  struggle  between  his 
impulses  and  his  rudimentary  principles.  The 
social  order  is  reflected  in  his  own  conscious- 
ness; the  social  and  the  egoistic  principles 
thus  come  into  collision  within  him,  and  so  he 
makes  the  acquaintance  of  conscience,  though 
in  a  most  rudimentary  way.  The  training  of 
character  at  this  point  will  consist  in  trans- 
forming merely  external  rules  into  genuinely 
internal  ones.  To  make  rules  prevail  exter- 
nally is  not  enough.  To  secure  compliance 
through  merely  egoistic  motives,  as  is  done  in 
much  of  what  is  called  rewards  and  punish- 
ments, is  to  make  secondary  the  very  thing 


PERIODS    OF   DEVELOPMENT  231 

that  training  should  make  primary.  Already 
the  child  appreciates  some  of  the  reasons  for 
the  rules  that  are  imposed  upon  him,  and  to 
this  extent  reasons  should  be  given.  Yet 
reason  is  still  too  frail  to  be  the  sole  reliance. 
Often  the  only  reason  that  can  be  given  is 
that  "we  always  do  so,"  "it  is  the  custom," 
and  so  on.  Hence,  the  child  must  be  allowed  to 
discover  by  experience  that  obedience  brings 
happiness  and  disobedience  pain.  But  both 
the  happiness  and  the  pain  should  have  two 
qualities  not  usually  associated  with  the  pop- 
ular notion  of  rewards  and  punishments : 
They  should  as  far  as  possible  be  simply  nat- 
ural consequences  of  the  child's  conduct,  and 
they  should  be  shared  in  by  the  whole  group 
of  which  the  individual  child  is  a  member. 
The  whole  family  should  suffer  and  rejoice  to- 
gether, and  thus  each  child  should  come  to 
think  of  his  pains  and  pleasures  as  the  pains 
and  pleasures  of  his  social  self. 

128.  (2)  The  This  is  a  period  of  active 

Imagination.  .  .       ^.  ^^   ■      , 

imagination.      Objects     are 

becoming  definite,  images  of  them  are  multi- 
plying, and  these  images  are  combined  and 
separated  in  the  freest  manner.  Stories,  more 
involved  and  connected  than  those  of  infancy, 
and  especially  stories  of  dramatic  action,  are 


232     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

in  the  greatest  demand.  The  same  story  is 
wanted  over  and  over,  and  in  the  same  lan- 
guage. Here  is  opportunity  to  fill  the  mind 
with  a  stock  of  images  that  shall  represent  life 
in  its  truth.  The  stories  that  are  employed 
should  not  be  goody-goody,  nor  should  they 
contain  any  effort  to  reveal  spiritual  ideas  and 
motives  that  are  beyond  the  young  child's 
stage  of  spontaneous  interest.  What  is  needed 
is,  once  more,  the  truth  of  life  embodied  in 
simple,  sensuous  forms,  especially  forms  of 
outward  action.^ 

129.  (3)  Expres-  Expressive    activities,  al- 

sive  Activities.  .  ,  ^    , 

ways  m  order,  now  take  on 
a  special  significance.  To  the  relatively  aim- 
less activities  of  the  infant  succeeds  effort  for 
successful  activity,  for  attaining  some  end 
that  is  definitely  conceived.  Hence  the  de- 
light of  children  in  re-telling  a  story  or  act- 
ing it  out ;  securing  control  of  objects ;  arrang- 
ing objects  in  accordance  with  some  plan; 
constructing  things  or  participating  in  the 
work  of  the  household.     Here  is  opportunity 

^  One  of  the  delights  of  my  own  childhood  was  the 
story-telling  of  my  maternal  grandmother.  There  were 
tales  of  Indians,  and  bears,  and  thrilling  escapes.  Yet 
the  story  that  has  proved  to  be  most  tenacious  in  my 
memory  is  a  crude  recital  of  a  moral  temptation  and  a 
moral  victory.  The  story  had  abundant  action,  and 
abundant  humor.  Whether  a  moral  was  appended  I 
cannot  say,  but  I  know  that  the  story  made  truthfulness 
appear  as  the  natural  way  of  getting  along. 


PERIODS   OF    DEVELOPMENT  233 

for  the  sharing  of  life  mentioned  in  Chapter 
XI,  and  also  for  expressive  activities  in  con- 
nection with  stories  from  the  Bible  or  from 
other  literature.  Temples,  cities,  forts,  sol- 
diers, ships,  will  be  gladly  constructed  as  a 
living-out  of  story-material.^  Further  refer- 
ence to  constructive  activities  will  be  made  in 
Chapter  XVII. 

130.  The  Use  of  Here  an  important  ques- 

Wonder-Stories.  ,.  t     -4.       •       ^     ^  n 

tion  arises :  Is  it  wise  to  tell 

to  children  as  true,  or  to  permit  them  to  re- 
gard as  true,  stories  that  they  will  ultimately 
doubt  or  disbelieve  ?  Extreme  positions  have 
been  taken  upon  this  question.  On  the  one 
hand,  some  parents  refuse  to  tell  their  chil- 
dren any  myth  or  fairy-lore,  even  denying 
them  the  joys  of  dear  old  Santa  Glaus.  Such 
cases  as  the  following  are  cited  in  support  of 
this  position :   A  little  girl  is  said  to  have  re- 

'  Another  reminiscence  may  be  pardonable.  If  I  may 
trust  my  memory,  the  occupations  that  gave  me  the 
most  satisfaction  at  this  period  were  these :  In  the 
earlier  part  of  it,  digging  holes,  and  building  canals, 
tunnels,  and  bridges  in  the  clean  sand  under  the  limbs  of 
an  ancient  maple  tree  ;  going  to  a  gulch  back  on  the  farm, 
digging  holes  in  Its  hard-packed,  sandy  walls  (I  can 
still  smell  the  odor  of  the  freshly  uncovered  sand),  and 
gathering  "  fools'  "  gold.  Later  came  jumping  from  the 
high  beams  of  the  barn  into  the  hay-mow ;  hunting  hens' 
nests ;  riding  the  horses  to  water ;  riding  the  horse  that 
drew  the  "cultivator,"  or  otherwise  "helping"  In  the  farm 
work ;  gathering  hickorynuts  and  butternuts.  At  the 
close  of  my  early  childhood  I  became  a  dweller  in  a 
Tillage,  and  it  seems  to  me  now  that  my  life  became  all 
at  once  relatively  empty. 


234     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

marked, "  What  you  told  me  about  Santa  Claus 
is  untrue,  and  how  can  I  know  that  what 
you  are  telling  me  about  God  is  true  ? "  At  the 
opposite  extreme  are  theorists  who  say  that, 
since  the  individual  recapitulates  the  history 
of  the  race,  the  child  should  be  supplied  with 
such  mental  furniture  as  the  race  possessed 
at  a  corresponding  stage.  Hence,  the  Greek 
and  Teutonic  mythologies,  fables,  fairy- 
stories,  and  folk-lore  of  many  varieties  have 
been  recommended.  On  the  same  ground  it 
is  proposed  to  feed  children  with  wonder- 
stories  from  the  Bible,  and  apparently  the 
stories  which  adults  have  the  most  difficulty 
to  accept  are  regarded  as  best  adapted  to 
childhood.  "There  is  nothing  more  natural 
for  the  child,"  it  is  said,  "than  the  belief  that 
the  one  whom  he  thinks  of  as  God  should  do 
wonderful  things,  should  make  the  iron  to 
swim,  the  water  to  burn  or  the  sun  to  stand 
still  when  his  great  servants  requested  him 
to  do  so.  He  will  be  troubled  sufficiently  in 
later  life  when  reason  and  the  philosophic 
tendency  have  developed  and  he  has  to  wres- 
tle with  the  nature  of  miracles,  their  necessity 
and  their  plausibility,  and  all  this  should  be 
left  for  maturer  years.  "^ 

'  S.    B.    Haslett :   The    Pedagogical   Bible   School    (New 
York,  1903),  page  248.     See  also  pages  305-313. 


PERIODS   OF   DEVELOPMENT  235 

It  is,  indeed,  easy  to  understand  how  chil- 
dren thus  fed  come  to  "be  troubled  suffi- 
ciently in  later  life, ' '  but  why  should  we  thus 
lay  up  trouble  in  store  for  them?  Sound  ed- 
ucation will  try  to  prevent  the  upheavals,  not 
to  say  catastrophes,  that  these  words  imply. 
The  correct  method  of  handling  the  myth  and 
wonder-story  seems  to  lie  midway  between  the 
two  extremes.  A  little  boy  who  had  begun  to 
guess  the  truth  of  the  Santa  Claus  myth  came 
to  his  mother  a  day  or  two  before  Christmas 
with  the  question,  "Mother,  is  grandma  Santa 
Claus?"  "Yes,"  replied  the  mother.  "Is 
Auntie  L.  Santa  Claus?"  "Yes,"  was  the 
answer  again,  and  to  each  appeal  for  literal 
truth  the  mother  responded  with  literal  accur- 
acy. Yet  when  Christmas  Eve  came,  the  boy 
hung  his  stocking  as  usual,  and  he  and  his 
younger  sister  entered  into  the  whole  Santa 
Claus  myth  with  the  same  zest  as  before.  The 
point  of  this  incident  is  that  truth  contained 
in  figures  can  feed  the  imagination  at  the 
same  time  that  the  reason  is  fed  with  the  same 
truth  in  literal  form.  Reason  and  imagina- 
tion are  not  antagonistic  to  each  other  except 
where  false  education  has  made  them  so. 

One  extremist  would  feed  the  reason  and 
starve  the  imagination,  while  the  other  would 


236     EDUCATION  IN   RELIGION  AND  MORALS 

stuff  the  imagination  without  reference  to 
reason.  The  present  tendency  is  toward  the 
latter  extreme,  and  the  current  is  setting  so 
strongly  that  way  that  a  warning  is  needed 
lest  we  prolong  for  another  generation  the 
difficulty  with  biblical  wonder-stories  that  has 
so  seriously  troubled  the  last  several  genera- 
tions. If  we  do  not  believe  that  a  serpent 
spoke  articulate  language,  or  that  the  sun 
stood  still  at  Joshua's  command,  we  should 
not  teach  these  stories  as  though  they  were 
true.  If  we  doubt  them,  we  should  not  teach 
them  as  though  we  did  not  doubt.  As  soon 
and  as  far  as  any  child  shows  an  inclination 
to  discriminate  literal  truth  from  imaginative 
forms,  the  literal  truth  should  be  given  to- 
gether with  the  figure  that  clothes  it.  This 
does  not  imply  the  foisting  of  theories  or  of 
debated  points  upon  children  who  are  not 
ready  for  them,  but  it  does  imply  fidelity  to 
the  truth  as  we  see  it.  Only  through  such 
fidelity  can  we  prevent  catastrophic  doubts  in 
later  life. 

131.  Children's  This    brings    us    to    the 

Questions.  ,   ,  n        ^.•^J         > 

problem  of  children  s 
questions.  In  later  infancy  and  early  child- 
hood, curiosity  is  likely  to  be  insatiable.  Its 
demands    often    outrun    the    knowledge    of 


PERIODS    OF   DEVELOPMENT  237 

parent  and  of  teacher.  The  facts  and  laws  of 
nature,  particularly  the  mystery  of  genera- 
tion and  birth,  Bible  history,  human  institu- 
tions and  customs,  moral  laws,  God— all  these 
topics  and  many  more  are  included  in  the 
demand  for  information.  What  response  shall 
be  made  to  this  demand?  Our  central  prin- 
ciple of  the  sharing  of  life  offers  a  reply. 
Just  as  fast  as  the  child's  spontaneous  inter- 
ests call  for  information,  a  perfectly  honest 
and  open  response  should  be  made.  The 
parent  or  teacher  should  share  his  knowledge 
with  the  child  without  stinting.  This  does  not 
mean  that  the  child  is  capable  of  receiving 
the  whole  truth  on  any  subject,  but  only  that 
he  should  receive  all  that  he  really  demands 
and  in  a  form  adapted  to  his  powers  of  assim- 
ilation. This  plan  will  involve  many  an  "I 
do  not  know,"  and  "I  am  not  absolutely  sure, 
but  I  believe,"  and  it  will  forbid  all  evasion 
and  deception.  To  deceive  or  evade  is  not 
merely  to  put  away  a  troublesome  question; 
it  is  to  put  away  the  child's  personality  also; 
it  is  to  begin  cutting  away  the  surest  and 
most  natural  bond  between  the  child  and  his 
elders.  On  the  other  hand,  an  honest,  pains- 
taking answer  to  a  question  gives  much  more 
than  information;  it  gives  a  self.    It  is  an  act 


238     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION  AND   MORALS 

in  which  a  mature  soul  goes  out  and  encloses 
within  its  own  warm  life  the  dependent  soul 
of  the  child. 

Doubtless  this  requires  a  high  type  of 
courage.  To  reveal  one's  self  thus  to  a  child 
is  like  standing  before  the  judgment-bar  of 
God.  Indeed,  is  not  childhood  in  reality  a 
divine  bar  of  judgment?  In  its  presence  we 
are  forced  to  consider  what  we  really  are,  and 
whether  our  ideas,  our  ideals,  and  our  prac- 
tices are  worthy  to  be  perpetuated  through 
the  new  generation.  Here-  we  have  to  cast 
aside  all  insincerity,  all  conceit.  We  must 
confess  the  limitations  of  our  knowledge  and 
of  our  moral  attainments,  and  discriminate 
between  what  we  know,  what  we  believe,  and 
what  we  hope  for.  It  is  also  necessary  to 
become  simple,  to  appreciate  the  child's  point 
of  view,  and  to  adapt  information  to  his 
powers.  Blessed  is  the  child  who  receives 
such  answers  to  his  questions  that  he  never 
ceases  during  all  his  developing  years  to  bring 
his  problems  directly  to  his  parents !  ^ 

*  There  is  a  special  reason  why  questions  relating  to 
eex,  generation,  and  birth  should  receive  this  kind  of 
response,  namely,  that  the  desired  information  is  sure 
to  be  acquired,  and  that,  if  it  is  not  acquired  from  Its 
natural,  pure  source — the  parents — it  is  almost  certain 
to  come  from  sources  that  mix  error  with  truth,  pollute 
the  imagination,  and  often  corrupt  the  conduct.  Even 
the  air  of  mystery  that  surrounds  this  subject  when  it  is 
not  franl£ly  treated  is  a  source  of  danger.     For  it  stlm- 


PERIODS   OF   DEVELOPMENT  239 


132.  Traits  of  Between  early  childhood 

Later    Childhood.         ,    .       ,         .    ,  ,  .       ,  , 

(six  to  eight  or  nine)   and 

later  childhood   (eight  or  nine  to  twelve  or 

thirteen)   there  is  no  obvious  break,  but  yet 

a    real    transition.      Imagination    now    comes 

closer  to  real  life.     Tales  of  adventure  and 

true  stories  from  biographical  and  historical 

sources  come  into  demand.     This  means  that 

the  child's  own  personality  is  growing  definite 

to   himself,   and   so   also    the   personality   of 

others.^    Consequently  a  higher  form  of  social 

organisation  is  possible.     Heretofore,  games 

ulates  the  imagination,  drives  to  clandestine  sources  of 
information,  and  tends  to  precocious  stimulation  of  the 
sexual  organism.  As  fast  as  real  interest  in  this  sub- 
ject grows,  correct  and  literal  knowledge  should  be  im- 
parted, though  it  may  well  be  clothed  in  the  garments 
of  poetic  feeling.  Tlie  most  approved  plan  is  to  explain 
the  processes  of  reproduction  among  the  flowers,  and 
then  among  animals  of  different  grades.  The  knowl- 
edge thus  imparted  is  at  once  scientific  and  yet  capable 
of  poetic  treatment.  Students  of  this  subject  believe 
that  parents  should  impart  such  knowledge  viva  voce, 
and  not  by  giving  their  children  books  containing  it.  A 
gentleman  who  has  had  large  experience  in  the  instruc- 
tion of  boys  in  the  facts  of  sex  speaks  of  Mary  Wood 
Allen's  Ahnost  a  Mayi  (Ann  Arbor.  Mich.  :  Wood- Allen 
Publishing  Co.)  and  Dr.  Stall's  books  (Philadelphia:  Vir 
Publishing  Co.)  as  suggestive  to  parents  and  less  open 
to  objection  than  many  books  that  have  the  same  end  in 
view.  When  later  adolescence  is  reached  the  youth 
may  with  greater  safety  read  for  himself  the  right  kind 
of  books  on  this  subject. 

*  If  persistence  in  memory  is  proof  of  an  originally 
deep  impression,  most  of  the  Sunday-school  books  that 
I  read  during  this  period  made  little  impression  upon 
me,  and  were  therefore  ill-adapted  to  my  spontaneous 
interests.  Of  the  entire  number  I  can  now  recall  the 
contents  of  only  one,  a  life  of  Charles  Goodyear.  One 
passage  in  it  is  especially  distinct — the  scene  in  which 
his  zeal  in  pursuing  his  experiments  in  the  vulcanisation 
of  rubber  led  him,  in  order  to  keep  his  furnace  hot,  to 
cast  in  even  the  furniture  of  his  home. 


240     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

have  been  chiefly  those  in  which,  like  running, 
wrestling,  marbles,  top-spinning,  and  the  like, 
the  individual  competes  with  other  individ- 
uals. But  in  the  present  period  team  games 
begin.  At  first  even  the  team  games  are 
played  for  individual  success  or  glory,  but  by 
the  age  of  ten  or  eleven  there  develops  true 
team  play,  that  is,  play  in  which  the  individ- 
ual works  disinterestedly  for  the  success  of  the 
team.  Parallel  with  this  is  the  tendency  for 
boys,  from  the  age  of  ten,  to  form  groups  or 
"gangs"  of  a  more  or  less  secret  kind. 
Finally,  interest  grows  in  matters  that  involve 
skill  or  specialised  ability,  especially  of  a 
physical  kind.  Hence  the  efforts  of  girls  to 
acquire  skill  in  jackstones,  beadwork,  doll- 
housekeeping;  of  boys  in  various  athletic  ex- 
ercises, and  of  both  boys  and  girls  in  puzzles. 
Connected  with  this,  no  doubt,  is  the  readiness 
of  children  in  the  latter  part  of  the  period  to 
apply  themselves  to  the  task  of  committing 
things  to  memory.  Tricks  and  sleight-of-hand 
become  fascinating.  For  a  considerable  period 
one  of  my  little  friends  scarcely  ever  met  me 
without  asking, ' '  Have  you  any  more  tricks  ? ' ' 
Interest  in  constructive  activities  is  also  con- 
siderable. Wooden  swords,  weather-vanes, 
wind-mills,  toy  boats,  home-made  wagons  and 


PERIODS    OF   DEVELOPMENT  241 

home-made  bob-sleds,  bows  and  arrows,  traps, 
kites— all  testify  to  it.  Finally,  boys  show 
extraordinary  interest  (which  does  not  end 
with  this  period)  in  athletics.  I  have  seen 
boys  at  this  age  show  astonishing  endurance  in 
running  around  a  city  block  as  many  times  as 
possible  without  stopping,  or  in  striving  to 
increase  the  height  of  their  high  jump.  The 
page  of  sporting  news  in  the  daily  paper  is 
read  with  the  greatest  eagerness.  Especially 
interesting  is  the  person  of  any  champion, 
whether  prize-fighter,  heavy-weight  lifter, 
pole-vaulter,  or  what  not. 

133.  Its  Religious  In  this  period,  as  always. 

Training:    (1)  ^,  j         i.-         i 

Through  the  the     primary     educational 

Social  Order.  fact  is  the   contact  of  the 

child  wath  the  life  of  the 
family.  In  the  sharing  of  life  that  constitutes 
the  bond  of  the  true  family,  the  child  absorbs 
religion  by  suggestion  and  imitation.  But  the 
process  changes  from  stage  to  stage,  particu- 
larly because  the  child  increasingly  realises 
his  own  individuality.  In  later  childhood  the 
personal  realisation  of  right  and  wrong,  what 
we  call  conscience,  begins  in  a  somewhat  large 
and  definite  way  to  take  the  place  that  was 
occupied  in  early  childhood  by  mere  rules  im- 
posed by  external  authority.     This  does  not 


242     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

imply  that  now  that  the  child  has  a  conscience 
of  his  own  he  is  to  be  left  to  himself,  but  only 
that  his  intimate  relation  to  the  family  is  to 
be  advanced  to  a  higher  plane.  Increasing 
sense  of  responsibility  is  to  be  met  by  actually 
increasing  the  responsibilities,  that  is,  by  en- 
larging the  functiojis  of  the  child  in  the 
family  or  other  social  group.  Further,  the 
growing  sense  of  self  is  to  be  fed  by  increased, 
not  diminished,  fellowship  with  the  parents. 
In  this  period,  particularly  toward  the  end  of 
it,  the  parents  can  easily  weaken  or  lose  the 
confidential  relationship  upon  which  the 
surest  influence  depends.  Consequently,  this 
is  a  time  when  the  sharing  of  the  children  in 
adult  interests,  and  of  adults  in  the  children's 
interests  becomes  of  especial  significance. 
AVorking  together,  reading  together,  playing 
together,  form  the  natural  background  for 
advice,  instruction,  and  common  worship. 
Here  is  the  clue,  also,  to  sound  discipline. 
The  child  is  to  learn  the  meaning  of  law 
chiefly  through  his  personal  fellowship  with 
parents  who  are  law-abiding.  A  parent  who 
tramples  upon  a  child's  sense  of  justice,  or 
who  in  the  administration  of  even  a  just  rule 
lays  aside  his  fellowship  with  the  child,  or 
who  in  his  own  person  exhibits  caprice,  arbi- 


PERIODS   OF  DEVELOPMENT  243 

trariness,  or  selfishness,  is  training  the  child 
in  lawlessness.  The  most  impressive  exhibi- 
tion of  the  mightiness  of  law  for  any  child  is 
a  parent  who  obeys  law.  In  short,  the  will  of 
the  child,  now  coming  to  itself,  is  to  be  trained 
chiefly  through  the  fellowship  of  obedience, 
the  fellowship  of  labor,  the  fellowship  of 
play,  and  the  fellowship' of  worship. 

134.  (2)  Through  In  the  next  place,  the  in- 

Personality.  terest   in   human   life   that 

springs  up  in  this  period, 
especially  the  interest  in  adventures  and 
stirring  action,  can  be  directly  utilised  for 
evoking  high  ideals  of  strength  and  courage. 
The  child  now  begins  to  sit  in  judgment  upon 
persons  as  he  has  not  done  before.  He  esti- 
mates and  weighs,  condemns  and  admires.  It 
is  at  least  as  natural  for  him  to  admire 
strength,  skill,  or  prowess  in  the  service  of 
high  ends  as  in  the  service  of  low  ends.  Pos- 
sibly it  is  still  too  early  for  him  to  realise  that 
real  strength  lies  in  the  intellectual  and  moral 
sphere,  and  that  real  heroism  is  heroism  of 
conscience,  but  it  is  never  too  early  to  fill  the 
mind  with  interesting  images  of  power  rightly 
employed.  Such  images  are  to  be  found  in 
abundance  in  Biblical  and  other  biographical 
material.    Under  the  mere  law  of  association 


244     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

of  ideas  these  images  will  reinforce  the  child 's 
own  conscience.  They  will  help  him  to  feel 
the  naturalness  of  right  conduct,  and  to  feel 
this  is  to  win  half  the  battle  for  character. 

135.  (3)  Through  A  third  means  of  relig- 

Spontaneous  .  ,.  .      p  i   •      -i 

Activities.  i^us  culture  IS  louud  m  the 

characteristic  activities  of 
the  period.  They  cover  a  wide  range,  from 
exercises  of  the  muscles  to  exercises  of  the 
memory.  Manual  training,  which  should  be 
a  part  of  the  curriculum  at  every  stage,  now 
begins  to  show  some  of  its  moral  fruit.  Neat- 
ness, accuracy,  patience,  submission  to  law— 
all  these  virtues  grow  directly  out  of  properly 
guided  manual  training.  Further,  it  is  in- 
volved in  manual  training  that  the  pupil  shall 
habitually  look  at  material  in  the  light  of 
some  ideal  to  be  realised  in  and  through  it. 
Thus,  controlling  one's  self  and  one's  ma- 
terial in  the  building  of  matter  into  ideal 
forms,  even  though  the  ideal  be  the  humble 
one  of  a  useful  stool  or  table,  the  child  actu- 
ally exercises  the  powers  and  qualities  that 
make  a  good  life.  The  impulse  toward  works 
of  skill  can  be  further  employed  in  the  way 
of  expressive  activities  for  the  illustration  and 
full  in-working  of  the  Biblical  or  other  ma- 
terial of  instruction.    Examples  will  be  given 


PERIODS   OP   DEVELOPMENT  245 

in  our  discussion  of  the  Sunday  school.  Sim- 
ilarly, the  readiness  to  undertake  feats  of 
memory  can  now  be  utilised  for  storing  the 
mind  with  the  best  things  in  the  Bible  and  in 
general  literature.^ 

136.  (4)  Through  Finally,    the    impulse    to 

the   Group-  „  -,    , 

Impulse.  form  groups  and  to  engage 

in  team  games,  especially 
toward  the  end  of  this  period,  furnishes  an 
opportunity  for  developing  the  social  sense. 
Two  apparently  opposite,  yet  complementary, 
facts  can  now  be  observed,  the  fighting  tend- 
ency and  the  grouping  tendency.  Both  rep- 
resent a  heightened  sense  of  personality,  and 
both  represent  a  tendency  to  socialisation. 
For  the  fighting  is  commonly  done  in  the  in- 
terest of  a  group,  and  in  any  case  it  repre- 
sents a  new  sense  of  justice,  or  honor,  or  social 
approbation.  Here  is  opportunity  to  help  the 
child  to  learn  what  real  justice  and  honor  are 
—not  by  rebuking  and  repressing  fighting 
altogether,  but  rather  by  directing  the  impulse 
into  socialised  channels,  such  as  the  defense 
of  the  weak  against  oppression,  the  righting 
of  social  wrongs,  and  so  on.  In  similar  ways, 
the  spirit  of  team  games  or  of  other  group- 
activities  can  be  made  to  realise  itself  as  self- 

1  See  Chapter  X,  §  89. 


246     EDUCATION   IN   RELIGION  AND   MORALS 

sacrifice,  fidelity,  loyalty.  This  implies,  of 
course,  that  adults  should  not  hold  themselves 
aloof  from  these  child's  interests,  but  enter 
into  them  with  sympathy  and  appreciation. 
Merely  giving  advice  is  not  enough;  merely 
restraining  excesses  is  not  truly  educative. 
Here,  as  everywhere,  the  essential  educative 
force  is  the  genuine  mingling  of  a  developed 
life  in  the  interests  and  occupations  of  unde- 
veloped lives. 


CHAPTER  XV 

PERIODS  OF  DEVELOPMENT  :     ADOLESCENCE 

137.  Our  Limited  The  study   of   the  inner 

Knowledge  of  ^^p        j>      j    i  j.     ^         ■> 

Adolescence.  ^^^^  01  adolescents  has  been 

limited  almost  exclusively 
to  children  of  families  connected  with,  or 
under  the  influence  of,  the  evangelical  Prot- 
estant churches.  Even  of  these  children  the 
ones  chiefly  studied  are  those  who  have  varied 
least  from  customary  types  of  piety.  Of  the 
inner  life  of  adolescents  brought  up  under 
Catholicism,  or  under  non-Christian  religions, 
or  without  religious  influences,  we  know  next 
to  nothing  except  by  inference.  Adolescent 
religious  psychology  is  therefore  far  from 
being  complete.  Yet  three  claims  may  be 
made  for  it.  In  the  first  place,  the  analysis 
of  cases  has  been  sufficiently  careful  to  estab- 
lish results  that  are  true  at  least  for  the  par- 
ticular classes  examined.  In  the  next  place, 
these  results  have  been  brought  into  relation 
to  the  physical  and  mental  traits  that  are 
characteristic  of  the  period  in  general. 
Finally  the  results  have  been  brought  into  re- 
lation also  with  a  large  body  of  religious  cus- 


248     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION  AND   MORALS 

toms  and  rites  in  the  Christian  churches  and 
in  other  religions.  From  all  this,  it  is  safe  to 
conclude  that  the  cases  already  examined  have 
important  significance  as  revealing  the  gen- 
eral nature  of  adolescence,  though  the  special 
form  in  which  they  present  it  is  determined 
by  a  special  environment  and  type  of  training. 

138.  The  Central  The  central  point  of  view 

Point  of  View.  „  t        ,        t  i   i 

tor  understanding  adoles- 
cence is  the  psycho-physical  one,  particularly 
as  it  concerns  the  change  from  childhood  to 
adult  life.  This  transformation  is  as  fully 
mental  as  physical.  In  both  realms  it  is  a 
change  in  the  relation  of  the  individual  to  the 
species,  specifically  a  change  in  which  the 
individual  acquires  new  power,  yet  power  the 
meaning  of  which  has  reference  to  society. 
Here  stand  individualising  and  socialising 
processes  over  against  each  other,  yet  united 
into  one.  The  child  becomes  independent  of 
parental  control,  begins  to  think  and  act  for 
himself,  has  a  larger  individual  life,  yet,  at 
the  same  time,  he  acquires  a  heightened  social 
sense,  forms  more  and  deeper  connections 
with  his  fellows,  and  actually  becomes  more 
fully  subordinated  to  social  custom  than  be- 
fore. Thus,  both  self-consciousness  and  social 
consciousness  come  to  the  blossom.     Inteliec- 


PERIODS   OF  DEVELOPMENT:   ADOLESCENCE  249 

tual  capacity  is  heightened,  emotion  grows 
deeper,  ethical  and  esthetic  sensibility  grows 
acute.  Defective  training  or  environment 
may,  of  course,  provide  inadequate  opportu- 
nity for  the  growth  of  these  tendencies.  They 
appear  in  varying  mixtures  according  to  tem- 
perament, health  and  disease,  rest  and  fa- 
tigue, and  suggestion  arising  from  the  imme- 
diate environment.  But  now  for  the  first 
time  the  individual  acquires  these  higher  ca- 
pacities which,  under  proper  conditions,  be- 
come actualities. 

139.  Direction  of  If  the  religious  life  is  to 

Growth"^  go   on   developing   through 

this  period,  it  must  undergo 
a  parallel  transformation.  On  the  one  hand, 
one's  religion  must  become  more  clearly  one's 
own,  a  value  personally  realised,  an  idea  that 
brings  personal  conviction ;  on  the  other  hand, 
it  must  become  socialised,  idealised,  and  ex- 
panded until  it  is  all-inclusive.  Into  the 
thought  of  God  should  now  be  poured  all  the 
wealth  of  new  sentiments  and  ideals.  The  in- 
tellect, becoming  independent,  and  aspiring 
toward  ultimate  truth,  is  feeling  after  an  ideal 
mind  that  shall  contain  all  the  riches  of  truth. 
Conscience  seeks  an  absolute  standard.  The 
social  impulse  reaches  out  beyond  all  visible 


250     EDUCATION   IN   RELIGION  AND  MORALS 


persons  to  the  thought  of  an  ideal  and  inde- 
structible fellowship.  A  new  eye  for  beauty 
now  adds  to  all  this  a  sense  of  an  inner  side 
to  the  glories  of  nature.  An  all  'round  reli- 
gious development,  in  which  idea,  sentiment, 
and  action  become  an  harmonious  unit,  per- 
sonally realised,  yet  all-encompassing,  is  not 
the  rule,  but  it  represents  the  possibilities  of 
the  period  and  the  direction  that  religious 
culture  should  take. 

140.  Sub- Periods  These  qualities  of  adoles- 

of  Adolescence.  i  ,      n  i. 

cence  do  not  all  appear  at 

once,  but  progressively  in  three  sub-periods. 
The  first,  or  early  adolescence  (twelve  or  thir- 
teen to  sixteen),  is  marked  by  a  strong  tend- 
ency to  self-assertion,  yet  to  incipient  social 
organisations,  particularly  with  persons  of 
the  same  sex.  It  is  the  awkward  age  when, 
being  rather  more  than  a  child  and  yet  less 
than  a  man,  one  has  no  customary  grooves  in 
which  to  move.  Hence  its  apparent  contra- 
dictions of  boisterousness,  yet  secretiveness ; 
of  timidity,  yet  over-boldness ;  of  self-assert- 
iveness,  yet  dependence  upon  a  group  or 
"gang."  There  is  abounding  physical  activ- 
ity, and  a  correspondingly  keen  appreciation 
of  action,  strength,  and  heroism. 

The    second    sub-period,    or    middle    ado- 


PERIODS   OF  DEVELOPMENT  :   ADOLESCENCE  251 

lescence  (sixteen  to  eighteen)  brings  more 
of  sentiment,  more  attraction  toward  per- 
sons of  the  opposite  sex,  more  romanticism, 
and  more  sense  of  the  depth  of  life.  Self- 
consciousness  takes  on  a  social  coloring,  as 
in  early  adolescence  it  was  largely  given 
to  self-assertion.  Because  of  its  increased 
emotional  capacity,  this  is  the  period  when 
the  largest  proportion  of  conversions,  as 
this  term  is  commonly  used  in  the  evan- 
gelical Protestant  churches,  occurs.^  This  fact 
does  not  prove  that  the  emotional  stresses  fre- 
quently connoted  by  the  term  conversion,  or 
indeed  that  conversion  in  any  sense,  is  normal 
to  just  this  period,  but  only  that  influences 
that  touch  the  sentiments  are  more  effective 
now  than  at  any  other  period  of  life.^ 

The  third  sub-period,  or  later  adolescence 
(eighteen  to  twenty-four  or  even  later)  tends 

1  Edwin  D.  Starbuck :  The  Psychology  of  Religion 
(London,  1899);  George  A.  Coe :  The  Spiritual  Life 
(New  York,  1900),  Chapter  I. 

*  The  age  of  16  is  the  most  favorable  for  emotional 
conversions.  But  it  is  a  misinterpretation  of  this  fact 
to  assume  that  therefore  conversions  of  this  type  should 
be  looked  for  in  all  persons,  or  that  entrance  upon  a  per- 
sonal religious  life  should  be  postponed  to  this  particu- 
lar age.  On  the  contrary,  the  general  trend  of  the  psy- 
chology of  adolescent  religion  is  to  the  effect  that  re- 
ligious growth  and  religious  conversion  are  simply  two 
forms  of  the  same  thing,  and.  further,  that  the  abrupt 
form  of  this  process  is  often  due  to  neglect  of  training 
in  earlier  life,  to  defective  training,  and  to  a  large 
mass  of  circumstances  that  are  not  essential  to  personal 
religion.    As  to  the  age  for  joining  the  church,  see  S  143. 


252     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

more  toward  reflectiveness,  the  construction 
of  one's  thought-system,  the  recognition  of 
one's  practical  relations  to  society,  the  con- 
sideration of  one's  calling  in  life,  the  assump- 
tion of  full  responsibility  as  a  citizen. 
141.  Religious  Every    characteristic    of 

Culture   in    Early  ^   ,  ,  ,   „ 

Adolescence:  adolescence  here  named  tur- 

IV  ^®.'"°'  nishes  a  point  of  contact  for 

Worship. 

religious      education.       To 

begin  with  early  adolescence  (twelve  or  thir- 
teen to  sixteen)  its  admiration  for  strength, 
individuality,  heroism,  offers  a  direct  means 
of  approaching  the  problem,  What  is  it  to  be 
a  strong  man?  Every  one  who  is  familiar 
with  athletics  knows  that  it  is  mind  not  less 
than  muscle  that  wins  athletic  contests.  A 
strong  man  must  have  a  strong  mind.  But  a 
mind  is  weak  that  does  not  devote  itself  to 
worthy  ends.  Moral  courage  is  more 
heroic  than  so-called  physical  courage.  In 
fact,  a  series  of  steps  can  here  be  taken  from 
admiration  of  strength  as  such  to  admiration 
for  strong  Christian  character.  The  means 
for  making  such  impressions  are  first  of  all 
true  stories  and  biographies  from  the  Bible 
and  from  general  history.  Such  a  study,  in- 
teresting in  itself,  Avill  lead  up  to  the  truth 


P   '^lODS   OF  DEVELOPMENT:  ADOLESCENCE  253 

that  Jesus  is  really  the  strongest  man  in  all 
history. 

142.  (2)  The  T]ie    impulse    of    young 

"Gang"  Impulse.  ,   ,  j.      .       n  ^ 

adolescents   to    lorm    close, 

more  or  less  secret  groups,  commonly  called 
"gangs",  of  persons  of  their  own  sex  is  a 
preliminary  manifestation  of  the  social  con- 
sciousness.^ The  impulse  that  underlies  these 
gangs  is  essentially  good,  because  it  is  social. 
Yet  the  self-assertive  spirit  of  boys  at  this 
period,  coupled  with  the  secrecy  of  the  gang, 
easily  leads  to  small  violations  of  established 
order,  then  to  larger  ones.  Any  boy  who  is 
neglected  by  his  parents  at  this  time  is  likely, 
through  his  gang  (the  existence  of  which  his 
parents  may  not  be  aware  of),  to  read  per- 
nicious literature,  to  form  vicious  sexual  ideas 
and  habits,  to  pilfer  and  lie,  and  thus  to  be- 
come, even  through  the  social  impulse,  un- 
social toward  the  world  at  large.  The  gangs 
of  young  criminals  in  our  cities  are  simply 
groups  of  fellows  whose  natural  appetite  for 
sociability,  activity,  and  freedom  has  had  in- 
sufficient or  improper  food.^  The  gang  impulse 

1  Our  knowledge  of  adolescent  girls  is  far  less  than 
that  of  adolescent  boys.  What  is  here  said  of  gangs 
applies,  primarily,  to  boys,  though  the  principle  involved 
Is  not  limited  to  them. 

'  One  of  Chicago's  gang  of  "car-barn  murderers,"  Just 
before  attempting  suicide  as  a  means  of  escaping  the  gal- 
lows, scrawled  a  defence  of  his  life,  or  rather  a  glorlfl- 


254     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

is  as  capable  of  being  an  instrument  of  weal 
as  of  woe.  It  may  develop  in  moral  and  reli- 
gious directions  as  well  as  any  other.  The 
part  of  wisdom  is  not  to  attempt  to  suppress 
it  (the  attempt  is  pretty  sure  to  fail),  but  to 
get  religion  into  the  gang,  or  the  gang  into  re- 
ligion. Experience  at  settlements  and  some 
churches  shows  that  young  adolescents  will- 
ingly accept  the  leadership  of  a  mature  man 
who  understands  them. 

143.  Age  of  If  there  is  a  normal  age 

Joining   the  £         ■    ■    ■  4.u        x.        -u      -4. 

Church.  foi*  joining  the   church,  it 

appears  to  be  just  this  age, 

with   its   new   demand    for   social    existence. 

Among  512  officers  of  Young  Men's  Christian 

Associations  the  average  age  of  the  first  deep 

religious    impression    appears    to   have   been 

13.7  years.^    Among  99  men  who  were  studied 

with  reference  to  all  their  periods  of  special 

religious  interest,  as  many  awakenings  of  the 

religious  sense  occurred  at  twelve  and  thirteen 

as  at  sixteen  and  seventeen. ^    A  recent  study, 

cation  of  it,  that  showed  arrest  of  moral  development 
at  just  the  period  when  early  adolescence  is  carried  away 
with  admiration  of  power  and  courage  and  with  the 
spirit  of  the  gang.  The  poor  fellow  prided  himself  on 
his  fidelity  to  his  companions,  his  daring  but  lawless 
acts,  his  ability  to  elude  the  police,  and  his  several  ex- 
periences  of  being  shot. 

»  Association  Outlook  for  December,  1897.     Article  by 
Luther      II.   Gulick. 

=  George    A.    Coe :     The    Spiritual    Life     (New    York, 
1900),  Chapter  I. 


PERIODS   OF   DEVELOPMENT:   ADOLESCENCE  255 

not  yet  published,  shows  that  in  a  group  of 
''growth  cases"  reaching  into  the  hundreds, 
the  most  distinctive  period  of  spontaneous  in- 
terest falls  at  the  age  of  twelve.  At  about  this 
age  many  children  desire  to  join  the  church, 
make  public  confession,  or  be  baptized,  but 
are  prevented  on  the  ground  that  they  are  too 
young.  There  commonly  follows  indifference 
that  is  in  many  cases  never  overcome.  This 
is  about  the  age,  too,  that  liturgical  churches 
have  fixed  upon,  by  long  custom,  for  confirma- 
tion or  first  communion.  From  all  these  facts, 
it  appears  that  the  age  of  the  gang  impulse  is 
the  one  most  natural  for  a  step  in  social  reli- 
gion, and  for  recognition  by  the  church.^ 
144.  (3)  Persona!  Qne  of  the  most  effective 

Friendship.  <?     i        i       •  x, 

means  of  developing  char- 
acter in  this  period  is  the  confidential  friend- 
ship of  a  mature  person  of  the  highest  Chris- 

^  Contrary  to  my  former  view  and  to  the  view  of 
Starbuck,  I  am  convinced  that  early  rather  than  middle 
adolescence  is  the  more  important  turning  point.  Con- 
versions that  occur  at  sixteen  and  seventeen  seem  to 
me  to  represent  cases  in  which  development  of  the  re- 
ligious sense  did  not  proceed  normally  during  the  pre- 
ceding four  or  five  years ;  they  are  essentially  an  effort 
to  "catch  up." 

If  the  age  for  joining  fhe  church  is  either  early  or 
middle  adolescence,  the  conditions  of  church  membership 
should  be  exceedingly  simple — little  if  anything  more 
than  an  acknowledgment  of  the  leadership  of  Je.sus. 
Subscription  to  a  creed  is  entirely  out  of  place  before 
later  adolescence  at  least.  Whether  it  is  ever  in  place 
as  a  condition  of  admission  to  church  membership  need 
not  here  be  discussed. 


256     EDUCATIOX   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

y  -  •    "r      — -■  -  ■ -     ■■  ■ ^ 

tian  character.  Such  friendship  is  the  inesti- 
mable privilege  of  parents.  If  the  adolescent 
only  carries  his  real  problems  and  interests  to 
his  parents  the  contest  against  evil  associations 
and  groupings  is  already  won.  Here  in  early 
adolescence  is  the  foundation  laid  for  the 
good  or  evil  that  appears  in  middle  and  later 
adolescence.  ' '  The  best  safeguard  of  a  young 
man  in  college— better  even  than  being  in  love 
with  the  right  kind  of  girl — is  a  perfectly 
open  and  affectionate  relation  to  both  parents. 
.  .  One  of  the  surprises  in  the  adminis- 
trative life  at  college  is  the  underhand  deal- 
ing of  parents,  not  merely  with  college  officers, 
but  with  their  own  sons.  "^ 

There  is  absolutely  no  substitute  for  the 
giving  of  one's  self  in  a  personal  friendship 
to  unformed  youths.  No  other  form  of  kind- 
ness, no  other  act  of  affection,  however  in- 
tense the  affection  may  be,  will  suffice.  A 
head  master  was  obliged  to  inform  a  father 
that  his  boy  was  failing  in  his  studies,  and 
that  he  had  been  "playing  the  races."  "I 
don't  understand  it  at  all,"  said  the  father, 

1  LeBaron  Russell  Briggs  :  School,  College  and  Char- 
acter (Boston,  1902),  Chapter  I.  Dean  Briggs  calls  es- 
pecial attention  to  the  fact  that,  as  the  young  man's 
chief  temptation  grows  out  of  his  newly  acquired  In- 
terest in  sex,  this  is  a  point  at  which  the  lack  of  con- 
fidential relations  between  parents  and  children  is  most 
destructive. 


PERIODS   OF  DEVELOPMENT:   ADOLESCENCE  257 

"for  I  have  given  my  son  everything  he  could 
wish  for."  Yes,  everything  except  the  one 
thing  that  alone  could  make  the  son  safe.  In 
contrast  to  this,  a  mother  in  one  of  our  west- 
ern states,  fearing  that  her  boy,  when  he 
began  his  college  studies,  would  no  longer  find 
her  a  companion  of  his  mind  (since  she  had 
not  had  college  advantages),  actually  pro- 
cured college  text-books  and  studied  them  year 
by  year  so  as  to  keep  abreast  of  her  son's  in- 
tellectual interests.^  It  is,  perhaps,  needless  to 
add  that,  in  some  degree,  teachers  may  share 
the  privilege  of  parents  in  respect  to  friend- 
ship with  young  adolescents.  A  teacher  who 
establishes  such  relations  with  his  pupils  that 
they  freely  express  themselves  to  him  multi- 
plies his  moral  and  religious  influence  over 
them  many  fold. 
145.  Religious  All    that    has    just    been 

Culture    in  •  i        «  i  i    i 

iviiddle  said    01    early    adolescence 

Adolescence.  applies  also  to  middle  ado- 

lescence (sixteen  to  eight- 
een). But  in  general  these  personal  relations 
must  be  established  in  the  earlier  period  or 

'Would  that  all  wbo  read  this  paragraph  might  have 
witnessed  the  pride  with  which  the  son  told  me  these 
facts,  adding  that  simple,  intimate  companionship  with 
his  mother  had  continued  from  boyhood  all  through  his 
college  days.  Here  is  a  hint  as  to  the  value  of  higher 
education  for  women. 


258     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

the  opportunity  for  starting  them  fades  away. 
In  addition,  leverage  for  religious  culture  in 
middle  adolescence  is  found  in  the  larger  part 
played  by  sentiment,  particularly  the  social 
sentiment.  Worship  now  acquires  new  mean- 
ings and  influence,  and  it  should  be  admin- 
istered in  that  beauty  of  holiness  that  the 
youth  is  now  ready  to  feel.  Again,  the  inner 
life  of  heroes  and  saints,  and  the  inner  springs 
of  history,  acquire  interest.  In  both  early  and 
middle  adolescence  missionary  biography  and 
adventure  offer  rich  material.  Now,  too,  the 
inner  side  of  the  life  of  Christ  will  touch  the 
heart.  Further,  the  growing  social  sense 
makes  possible  the  use  of  social  influences  in 
a  new  way;  the  young  people's  society  or  the 
organised  Sunday-school  class  will  tie  the  in- 
dividual to  the  church,  offer  means  of  per- 
sonal religious  culture,  and  introduce  him  to 
simple  forms  of  service  for  the  church  and 
for  his  fellows. 

146.  Training  the  How  shall  we  treat  the 
tendencies  to  sentiment  that 
now  appear?  Some  persons  simply  smile  at 
the  crudities  that  come  to  the  surface,  and 
pass  them  by  as  insignificant.  Others  play 
upon  the  emotions,  sometimes  stimulating 
them  to  excess  under  the  delusion  that  emo- 


PERIODS   OF  DEVELOPMENT:   ADOLESCENCE  259 

tional  upheavals  indicate  the  transformation 
or  sudden  maturing  of  character.  Still 
others  discourage  active  emotion  as  a  sign  of 
weakness.  But  in  all  these  attitudes  the  ed- 
ucational idea  of  development  through  the 
guidance  of  spontaneous  interests  is  over- 
looked. The  correct  attitude  toward  adoles- 
cent sentiment  is  this : 

(1)  The  developmental  principle  holds  at 
this  period  as  fully  as  at  any  earlier  one. 
There  is  no  "  short-cut ' '  to  maturity.  If  emo- 
tional crises  occur,  as  they  are  likely  to  do 
even  without  forcing,  they  should  be  treated 
simply  as  facts  belonging  in  a  long  series  of 
other  facts  reaching  from  infancy  to  man- 
hood. But  emotional  crises  are  not  to  be 
worked  for  or  "worked  up."  Development 
may,  indeed,  be  more  rapid  at  one  time  than 
another.  Even  in  intellectual  growth  there 
are  sometimes  sudden  startings  and  equally 
sudden  checkings.  Yet  we  cannot  rely  upon 
any  sudden  start  to  bring  the  pupil  to  his 
intellectual  or  his  spiritual  goal.  These  starts 
must  be  co-ordinated  with  what  goes  before 
and  with  what  comes  after,  and  especial  care 
must  be  taken  to  prevent  a  reaction  into  in- 
difference when  the  emotional  outburst  has 
spent  itself. 


260     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

(2)  The  fact  that  sentiment  begins  to  blos- 
som in  this  period  indicates  that  it  should 
have  a  place  in  our  scheme  of  education. 
"What  is  needed  is  culture  of  the  sentiments. 
This  differs  from  over-stimulation,  as  it  does 
from  neglect  and  from  repression.  It  implies 
feeding  this  side  of  the  nature.  The  church 
services  should  have  such  a  content,  setting, 
and  manner  as  to  produce  the  awe,  the  eleva- 
tion, and  the  joy  of  worship.  The  upspring- 
ing  thirst  for  a  personal  realisation  of  God 
should  be  met  in  our  teaching  by  some  in- 
struction regarding  the  experiences  of  the 
heart  and  the  conscience  that  certify  to  us  the 
immediate  presence  of  God.  The  ethical  sen- 
timents, particularly,  should  be  deepened,  yet 
made  free  and  joyous.  The  idea  of  the  broth- 
erhood of  man,  and  of  service  to  men  as  con- 
taining and  revealing  something  of  the  mean- 
ing of  our  mysterious  existence  will  be  wel- 
comed by  the  growing  social  instinct. 

(3)  Yet  it  is  easy,  by  over-stimulation  of 
the  sense  of  right  and  wrong,  or  by  too  great 
emphasis  upon  the  inner  evidence  of  divine 
things,  to  produce  morbidness.  Other  fre- 
quent contributing  causes  of  morbidness  are 
abnormal  states  of  the  physical  system,  par- 
ticularly nerve-fatigue  induced  by  neglect  of 


PERIODS   OF  DEVELOPMENT  :  ADOLESCENCE  261 

physical  hygiene  (improper  diet,  late  hours, 
indoor  living,  etc.),  excessive  excitements 
(social  and  other), overloading  the  school  cur- 
riculum, evil  habits,  unhappy  personal  rela- 
tionships in  the  family,  and  so  on.^  On  the 
other  hand,  too  much  publicity  in  prayer 
meeting  or  young  people's  society  is  likely  to 
result  in  habits  of  shallow  spirituality  and 
(under  the  pressure  to  say  something)  in  un- 
derestimation of  the  seriousness  of  speech 
and  the  importance  of  exact  truthfulness. 

(4)  Finally,  the  normal  growth  of  senti- 
ment may  be  missed  at  this  its  golden  oppor- 
tunity. While  many  adolescents  suffer  from 
excessive  or  misdirected  sentiment,  others 
suffer  for  the  want  of  sentiment.  They  are 
repressed,  or  made  ashamed,  or  kept  from 
such  teachings  and  associations  as  awaken 
noble  sentiment,  or  they  are  victims  of  some 
abnormal  physical  condition  that  deadens  the 
nerves.  To  set  free  the  imprisoned  emotional 
powers  of  such  an  adolescent  is  a  great  service 
to  him,  for  unless  these  powers  are  now  given 
exercise  he  is  likely  to  remain  through  life 
cold,  colorless,  incapable  of  the  warmth  of 
appreciation  in  which  so  much  of  life's  wealth 
consists. 

^  I  have  spoken  somewhat  fullj'  on  this  point  in 
Chapter  II  of  The  Spiritual  Life   (New  Yorli,  1900). 


262     EDtrCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

147.  Religious  In  later  adolescence 

Culture   in    Later        ,    ■    -,  ,  ,         ,  .      p 

Adolescence.  (eighteen     to     twenty-±our 

or  later)  the  special  means 
of  religious  culture  are  determined  by  the 
broader,  more  rational,  more  ethical  out- 
look upon  life,  and  by  the  great  fact  that 
now  the  youth  begins  to  assume  the  full 
responsibilities  of  manhood.  (1)  Broader 
and  more  critical  studies  of  life  and  its 
problems  can  be  entered  upon  through  the 
history  of  Israel  and  of  the  Christian  church, 
the  general  history  of  religion,  the  study  of 
Christian  missions,  of  Christian  ethics,  of 
Christian  doctrine,  or  of  current  problems  of 
practical  sociology  and  of  church  life.  (2) 
Such  studies  should  be  accompanied  by  plen- 
tiful means  of  self-expression,  such  as  discus- 
sions, debates,  essays,  worship,  and  especially 
church  work  and  practical  philanthropy. 
Many  of  the  young  people  at  this  age  should 
enter  normal  classes  in  order  to  prepare 
themselves  to  teach  in  the  Sunday  school,  and 
all  should  study  the  immediate  problems  of 
their  own  local  church.  The  world  now  lays 
upon  the  adolescent  the  responsibilities  of 
manhood  and  womanhood,  and  the  closing 
part  of  his  formal  education  is  to  be  had 
largely  through  actual  service,  under  proper 


PERIODS   OF  DEVELOPMENT:  ADOLESCENCE  263 

direction,  in  Sunday  school,  missions,  settle- 
ments, hospitals,  and  the  various  other  activ- 
ities of  the  church.  Further,  the  duties  of 
citizenship  are  now  to  be  fully  assumed.  The 
laws  of  the  state  and  the  ordinances  of  the 
municipality  might  well  be  studied  in  the 
parts  that  relate  more  directly  to  the  ethical 
aspects  of  government.  Public  sanitation  and 
cleanliness,  enforcement  of  the  laws  relating 
to  liquor-selling,  gambling,  and  the  social  evil, 
the  problems  of  honest  government— all  these 
interests  of  the  kingdom  of  God  are  to  be 
studied  and  also  actively  entered  upon. 

148.  Adolescent  This  is  the  period  when 

intellectual  doubts  are 
likely  to  appear  rather  formidable.  While  it 
is  not  probable  that  a  very  large  proportion 
of  the  young  people  of  the  churches  expe- 
riences difficulty  at  this  point,  a  few  always 
do  so,  and  these  few  will  generally  be  found 
to  include  some  of  the  strongest  minds  in  any 
group.  The  doubt  may  or  may  not  be  accom- 
panied by  emotional  disturbance  and  sense 
of  personal  loss  or  danger.  The  emotional 
doubt  must  often  be  treated  by  the  methods 
of  general  emotional  hygiene,  that  is,  by 
restoring  the  nerves  to  equilibrium,  and  turn- 
ing the  attention  to  other  interests.    But  what 


£64     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

shall  be  done  with  the  sincere  and  persistent 
intellectual  doubt?  Now  is  the  time  when 
real  statesmanship  in  education  is  needed — 
the  statesmanship  that  believes  in  freedom  of 
thought;  that  believes  in  the  capacity  of 
young  persons  of  serious  mind  to  attain  a 
personal  conviction  on  all  points  that  are 
essential  to  their  character;  that  conceals 
nothing,  and  resorts  to  no  indirection  or  sub- 
terfuge; that  has  sympathy,  good  humor, 
patience;  that  refuses  to  permit  any  young 
person  to  excommunicate  himself  in  act  or  in 
feeling  because  of  his  doubts;  that  has  a 
strong  grip  upon  the  fundamental  verities, 
especially  the  practical  faiths  upon  which 
our  real  life  depends;  finally,  that  engages 
young  persons  in  active  service  of  humanity 
even  in  the  midst  of  the  severest  doubts.  The 
intellectual  tactics  most  likely  to  be  helpful  in 
such  cases  consist  less  in  the  direct  refutation 
of  the  doubt  than  in  a  wider  opening  out  of/ 
the  problem  through  which  the  doubt  arises. 
A  larger  horizon  is  often  sufficient.  A  doubt 
as  to  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures  can 
best  be  met  by  exhibiting  the  growth  of  the 
self-revelation  of  God  of  which  the  Scriptures 
are  a  record.  One  who  appreciates  the 
growth    of    the    religious    consciousness    in 


PERIODS   OF  DEVELOPMENT:   ADOLESCENCE  265 

Israel  is  not  likely  to  be  troubled  with  the 
question  of  inspiration.  Similarly,  doubts  as 
to  the  person  of  Christ  may  well  be  met  by 
intensive  study  of  his  life  as  a  whole,  and  a 
broad  study  of  the  place  that  he  occupies  in 
the  general  religious  history  of  humanity. 

149.  The  Spiritual         The  capacity  for  love  be- 

Value  of  ^  n  -J. 

Human  Love.  tween   persons   of   opposite 

sex,  the  beginning  of  which 
is  the  central  fact  of  adolescent  psychology, 
is  usually  treated  as  a  matter  of  indifference 
to  religion  or  else  as  a  positive  hindrance  to 
spiritual  development.  In  view  of  the  diffi- 
culty of  controlling  this  most  powerful  in- 
stinct, it  is  not  strange  that  ascetic  notions 
with  regard  to  it  should  have  so  largely  pre- 
vailed. Yet  the  worst  evils  are  always  per- 
versions of  the  best  goods.  Social  immorality 
is  the  most  deadly  of  human  vices  just  because 
human  love  stands  in  the  closest  positive  rela- 
tion to  the  growth  of  spiritual  qualities.  In 
fact,  the  higher  sentiments  that  cluster  about 
the  relations  of  the  sexes  are,  in  their  normal 
development,  precisely  the  ones  that  consti- 
tute a  spiritual  as  distinguished  from  an  un- 
spiritual  life.  This  is  true  whether  we  find 
the  mark  of  unspirituality  in  grossness  or  in 
selfishness.       The    great    unselfishness    that 


266     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

knows  no  life  except  through  losing  its  life  is 
not  an  experience  of  childhood;  it  awaits 
adolescence,  and  it  is  an  upshoot  of  our 
capacity  for  devoted  love  to  a  person  of  the 
opposite  sex.  So,  also,  it  is  love  that  refines 
away  the  grossness  that  lurks  within  our 
nature.  The  lover's  reverence  for  the  loved 
object,  of  which  Plato  speaks;  the  idealising 
in  which  every  lover  indulges ;  the  quickened 
sense  of  beauty  which  gives  an  "opaline, 
dove's-neck  lustre"  to  the  lover's  world- 
all  this  helps  to  refine  life  in  general.  It 
spreads  through  the  whole  life  of  lovers  and 
is  communicated  to  the  whole  of  society.  As 
a  result,  religion  is  in  general  promoted  by  u 
normal  development  of  human  love,  and  is 
hindered  by  whatever  prevents  or  degrades 
it.  There  can  easily  be  too  great  separation 
of  the  sexes  in  all  the  sub-periods  of  ado- 
lescence. Simple,  free,  unrebuked  association 
between  boys  and  girls,  and  between  young 
men  and  young  women  has  proved  itself  in 
our  American  life  and  education  to  be  whole- 
some. The  reason  therefor  is  the  profound 
psychological  relation  between  love  human 
and  love  divine.  A  social  life  of  which  the 
family,  with  its  unity  of  adults  and  children, 
and  of  both  sexes,  is  a  type,  is  one  of  the 


PERIODS   OF  DEVELOPMENT:   ADOLESCENCE  267 

surest  safeguards  of  adolescence,  one  of  the 
surest  nurseries  of  the  spiritual  sensibilities.* 

'  What  a  fearful  moral  problem  Is  presented  by  the 
fact  that  hundreds  of  thousands  of  young  persons,  at 
or  near  the  close  of  middle  adolescence,  leave  the  free 
Bocial  life  of  the  family  and  the  neighborhood  to  go 
away  to  college  or  to  seek  their  living  among  strangers 
in  the  cities.  We  shall  not  solve  the  problem  of  reli- 
gious education  for  later  adolescence  until  we  discover 
ways  and  means  of  providing  social  life  for  such  young 
persons.  Here  is  a  hint  of  the  opportunity  of  the  insti- 
tutional church,  and  of  the  need  for  more  sociability 
everywhere. 


PART  III 
INSTITUTIONS 


CHAPTER  XVI 


THE  FAMILY 


150.  The  Family  A   father  who   felt   con- 

as  a  Moral  and  ,      •       i    .  •  i  n 

Religious  stramed  to  punish  a  small 

Community.  son  for  infraction  of  a  com- 

mand prefaced  his  act  with 
the  following  explanation:  "My  boy,  I  do 
not  like  to  punish  you,  but  it  is  my  duty  to 
do  so,  for  God  has  delegated  to  me  the  author- 
ity and  the  responsibility  of  governing  this 
family."  The  small  boy  was  at  first  awed  by 
the  thought  that  his  father  represented  God, 
and  thereby  his  observation  of  his  father's 
conduct  was  quickened.  The  result  was  a 
conviction  that  the  father  was  mistaken  con- 
cerning his  prerogative,  for  all  the  facts  went 
to  show  that  in  family  government,  as  in  other 
affairs,  he  employed  his  own  judgment  and 
sometimes  yielded  to  his  own  impulses. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  conception  of  the 
parent  as  one  who  simply  commands,  and  of 
the  child  as  one  who  simply  obeys,  belongs 
with  the  mediaeval  conception  of  church 
authority  and  the  Augustinian  doctrine  of 
divine  decrees.  Assuming  that  the  child 
is  simply  to  conform,  through  compulsion 
or    otherwise,    to    the    will    of    a    superior 


272     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

being,  it  forfeits  the  real  educational  op- 
portunity of  the  home.  The  opportunity 
of  the  home  is  the  chance  to  share  life. 
The  superiority  of  the  home  to  every  other 
educational  institution  grows  not  merely  out 
of  the  length  of  time  that  the  child  is  in  con- 
tact with  the  parent,  but  also  out  of  the 
intimacy  of  that  contact,  and  out  of  the  com- 
pleteness with  which  the  family  is  able  to 
realise  the  idea  of  a  moral  and  religious  com- 
munity. Not  through  mere  conformity,  but 
through  exercising  the  functions  of  a  member 
of  the  family  community,  does  the  character 
of  the  child  grow.  The  obverse  side  of  this 
truth  is  that  the  parent  educates,  just  as  the 
child  is  educated,  simply  by  filling  his  place 
as  a  member  of  the  family  community,  that 
is,  by  submitting  his  whole  conduct  to  the  law 
of  the  sharing  of  life.  A  part  of  what  this 
sharing  implies  has  already  been  shown 
at  various  places  in  our  discussion.  It  implies 
that  children  share  in  the  work  of  parents, 
that  parents  share  in  the  occupations  of  chil- 
dren, that  the  joys  and  sorrows  of  each  are 
shared  by  all.  We  need  now  to  carry  forward 
this  idea  of  the  sharing  of  life  until  we  see 
its  bearing  upon  law  and  obedience,  and  upon 
family  religion. 


THE    FAMILY  273 


151.  Law  and  It  is  often  said,  and  with 

Obedience    in    the        ,     .  .       ^i      .i     ,    ,i 

Family.  ODvious  truth,  that  there  is 

need  of  more  effective 
teaching  of  obedience  and  of  respect  for  law 
as  such.  Yet  few  parents  have  the  heart  to 
go  back  to  the  mechanical  rigidity  of  the  fam- 
ily government  of  other  days.  The  pity  of  it 
is  that  so  few  parents  go  forward  to  a 
realisation  of  law  as  the  necessary  method  of 
love,  of  obedience  as  a  necessary  factor  in 
freedom.^  The  starting  point  for  solving  this 
whole  problem  of  uniting  gentleness  with 
firmness,  joyousness  with  obedience,  is  the 
conception  of  the  family  as  a  community 
rather  than  a  mere  collection  of  individuals. 
Community  life  implies  mutual  giving  and 
receiving,  helping  and  being  helped,  and  also 
the  submission  of  every  member  to  the  neces- 
sary conditions  of  a  common  life.  Law  is 
involved  in  the  very  idea  of  the  family  as  a 
community.  It  is  not  necessary  to  introduce 
any  legalistic  or  juridical  notions  of  author- 
ity; the  authority  of  family  law  lies  open  to 
the  sight  in  the  family  itself.  It  simply 
expresses  the  concrete  facts  and  conditions 
of  family  existence.  It  is  simply  mutual  help- 
fulness so  organised  as  to  execute  itself  with 

»  See  §  §  40-42, 


274     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

efficiency.  Hence  the  parents  take  their  place 
within  the  family,  not  as  the  source  of  its 
law,  but  as  subjects  of  it.  Sharing  the  life 
of  obedience  with  their  children,  they  teach 
most  effectively  the  lesson  of  respect  for  law. 
The  fact  that  children  must  obey  before  they 
understand  the  reasons  for  obedience  need 
not  produce  any  sense  of  being  arbitrarily 
dealt  with,  for  their  suggestibility  enables 
them  to  assume,  both  externally  and  inter- 
nally, the  attitudes  of  those  who  surround 
them.  The  essential  requirement  is  that  they 
should  feel  themselves  to  be  members  of  a 
group  that  is  really  governed  by  the  spirit  of 
obedience,  AVhen  punishment  becomes  neces- 
sary, it  should  be  made  to  appear  as  an 
expression  of  law,  not  of  caprice,  and  the 
whole  family  should  enter  into  the  woe  of  it. 
The  only  kind  of  punishment  that  can  teach 
real  obedience  is  punishment  that  is  itself 
obedient  and  that  does  not  separate  the  child 
from  the  family,  but  rather  binds  him  to  it 
through  mutual  sympathy.^  If  a  parent 
should  himself  transgress,  what  better  can  he 
do  than  humble  himself  and  become  as  a  little 

1  Much  of  this  has  been  insisted  upon  by  Herbert 
Spencer  In  his  "Education :  Intellectual,  Moral,  and 
Physical"  (New  York,  1872),  Chapter  III.  But  it  Is 
doubtful  whether  the  "coldness"  that  he  recommends 
toward  offenders  is  as  good  as  warm  sympathy  with  them 
even   at  the   moment  of  their  punishment. 


THE    FAMILY  275 


child  by  making  open  reparation?  The  key 
to  the  whole  teaching  of  obedience,  then,  is 
the  establishment  of  true  community  life  in 
the  family,  a  life  that  is  free  from  all  arbi- 
trariness, all  artificial  requirements,  but 
faithful  in  its  administration  of  the  natural 
and  necessary  laws  of  its  existence,  and  insis- 
tent upon  obedience  from  the  parents  as  well 
as  the  children. 

152.  Family  In  the  idea  of  the  family 

Religion.  .^  , 

as    a    community   we    have 

the  clue  to  the  proper  organisation  of  family 
religion  also.  Wherever  the  children  really 
share  the  parents'  life,  and  the  parents  the 
children's  life,  in  the  manner  already  indi- 
cated, participation  of  the  children  in  the 
religion  of  the  parents  is  free  and  spon- 
taneous. Parents  who  do  not  share  with  their 
children  the  life  of  work,  play,  and  obedience, 
should  not  be  surprised  if  they  find  their 
children  unresponsive  to  parental  religion. 
We  should  drop  once  for  all  the  fatal  notion 
that  training  in  religion  can  be  made  to  thrive 
in  a  compartment  by  itself,  away  from  the 
sunlight  and  atmosphere  of  life  as  a  whole. 
With  children,  as  with  us  adults,  religion  is 
either  pervasive  of  life  or  it  is  next  to  noth- 
ing.    Now,  children  who  participate  in  the 


276     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

real  life  of  their  elders  in  other  respects,  will 
easily  and  naturally  feel  the  reality  of  reli- 
gion also.  They  will  find  family  prayer 
natural  and  unconstrained.^  They  will  listen 
to  instruction.  They  will  accompany  their 
parents  to  church  without  forcing,  and  in  due 
season  they  will  take  upon  themselves  as  a 
matter  of  course  the  responsibilities  of  full 
membership  in  the  church.^ 

But  all  this  presupposes  that  the  religion  of 
the  parents  is  made  constantly  visible  and 
audible  to  the  children.  Between  parent  and 
child  there  is  no  known  telepathic  connection 
whereby  unexpressed  principles  are  com- 
municated. A  merely  internal  religion,  which 
has  no  outward  modes  of  expression,  cannot 
be  a  strong  educational  power.  Therefore,  if 
God  is  to  become  a  living  power  in  the 
consciousness  and  the  conduct  of  children, 
parents  must  habitually  speak  of  him  as  an 
actual,   present   reality   in   their   own   lives. 

«  See  §  121. 

»  Would  it  not  be  well,  on  the  other  hand,  for  every 
pastor  to  see  to  it  that  the  church  service  invariably 
offers  something  to  children  that  is  specifically  adapted 
to  their  apprehension?  I  sympathise  with  children  who 
object  to  attending  a  service  that  is  wholly  meaningless 
to  them.  On  the  other  hand,  services  can  often  be  made 
meaningful  by  stimulating  an  active  attitude  of  children 
toward  them.  All  parts  of  the  worship  in  which  the 
people  take  part  audibly,  or  by  rising  or  kneeling,  can  be 
participated  in  by  children,  who  can  also  be  encouraged 
to  remember  the  text,  and  to  look  for  some  idea  that  caa 
be  reported  to  the  parents  after  home  has  been  reached. 


THE    FAMILY  2t7 


Nothing:  can  possibly  take  the  place  of  free 
conversation  with  children  about  divine 
things.  Our  extreme  reticence  on  such  sub- 
jects is  not  due  solely  to  our  reverence;  it 
contains  also  an  element  of  cowardice,  and  it 
results  in  w'eakening  ourselves  as  well  as  the 
young.  Religious  conversation  needs  to  be 
reinforced,  of  course,  by  specific  religious 
exercises  in  which  children  can  join. 

153.  Why  Family  Before     discussing     any 

Declined:   (1)  further  the  specific  methods 

Transitional  of  family  training  in  reli- 
State  of  Culture.  •  .,,     ,  „      ^ 

gion,  it  will  be  well  to 
notice  the  fact  that  such  training,  according 
to  universal  opinion,  has  suffered  a  general 
decline  within  the  last  generation.  The  causes 
therefor  are  complex.  First  of  all,  we  are  in 
a  transitional  stage  of  culture.  AVithin  this 
period  the  educational  ideas  of  freedom  and 
spontaneity  have  filtered  into  the  home,  and 
the  result  has  been  dissatisfaction  with  the 
mechanical  and  repressive  methods  whereby 
religion  was  once  taught.  Again,  conscious- 
ness of  the  transitional  state  of  religious  be- 
lief has  made  parents  uncertain  as  to  just 
what  to  teach  their  children.  Then,  too,  im- 
provements in  public  education,  and  the  ex- 
traordinary extension  and  multiplication  of 


278     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

the  means  of  culture  through  books,  maga- 
zines and  newspapers  have  swamped  the 
homely  efforts  of  plain  parents.  The  children 
have  been,  as  it  were,  snatched  away  from  the 
parents,  to  be  educated  by  the  great  world. 

154.  (2)  New  Meantime,  new  industrial 

Conditions.  conditions  have  also  tended 

to  create  a  gap  between 
parent  and  child,  and  to  prevent  the  sharing 
of  life.  First,  the  occupation  of  most  fathers 
has  ceased  to  be  carried  on  at  or  close  to  the 
home.  Not  only  does  this  pre^^ent  the  chil- 
dren from  securing  a  share  in  the  father's 
work,  or  even  a  sympathetic  acquaintance 
with  it,  but  the  father 's  early  start  from  home 
and  his  late  return  day  by  day  render  diffi- 
cult any  intimate  acquaintance  with  his 
children,  and  of  course  it  tends  to  prevent 
daily  family  devotions.  Second,  under  the 
modern  conditions  of  division  of  labor  and 
specialisation  of  effort,  the  family  performs 
fewer  kinds  of  service  for  itself,  and  so  pro- 
vides less  occupation  for  children's  hands, 
and  less  opportunity  for  co-operation  with 
parents.  What  was  once  made  in  the  home  is 
now  purchased  ready  to  use.  This  is  true  of 
clothing,  of  food,  of  house  furnishings  and 
decorations,  of  the  supply  of  light,  heat,  and 


THE    FAMILY  279 


water.  Under  the  old  conditions,  each  child 
at  an  early  age  assumed  regular  duties  in  the 
way  of  family  service.  Thereby  were  devel- 
oped habits  of  industry,  thrift,  obedience, 
regularity,  a  sense  of  responsibility,  and  a 
realisation  of  mutual  rights  and  obligations. 
Under  present  conditions,  except  in  the  coun- 
try, this  character-forming  participation  of 
the  child  in  the  life  of  his  elders  is  reduced  to 
a  minimum.  Third,  because  money  has  be- 
come the  almost  exclusive  means  of  securing 
the  satisfaction  of  wants  it  has  acquired  exag- 
gerated significance.  At  the  same  time  few 
children  receive  any  proper  training  with 
respect  to  its  acquisition  and  use.  For  the 
most  part,  the  children  of  to-day  are  simply 
spenders  of  that  of  which  they  cannot  under- 
stand the  value  or  the  proper  use. 

155.  (3)  Life  in  Add  to  this  the  enormous 

Cities.  .  •        -4.  1    i.- 

increase  in  city  populations, 
with  all  that  this  entails,  and  it  will  be  evi- 
dent how  seriously  the  relation  of  the  child 
to  the  means  of  education  in  the  home  has 
been  altered.  For  the  city  child  has  less  con- 
tact with  nature,  less  opportunity  for  whole- 
some play,  less  of  the  simple  life  that  befits 
childhood.  The  multiplicity  of  interests  and 
distractions  incident  to  modern  life,  particu- 


280     EDUCATION   IN   RELIGION  AND  MORALS 

larly  in  cities,  is  also  of  moment  to  the  prob- 
lem of  maintaining  normal  family  life.  For 
not  only  are  the  various  members  of  the  fam- 
ily carried  apart  from  one  another  by  the 
manifold  currents  of  business,  social,  and  rec- 
reational interests  and  opportunities,  but  the 
sensitive  brain  of  the  child  is  fairly  bom- 
barded by  the  excitements  of  the  city.  More 
than  that,  the  modern  city,  by  massing  the 
forces  of  evil,  gives  them  a  standing  and  an 
opportunity  which  they  have  nowhere  else. 
The  young  behold  evil  constantly ;  they  see  it 
tolerated  and  taken  for  granted;  they  cannot 
help  knowing  how  their  lower  propensities 
can  be  indulged  with  the  least  chance  of  dis- 
covery and  reproach.  This  is  true,  not  only 
of  evil  in  its  grosser  forms,  such  as  drinking, 
gambling,  and  licentiousness,  but  also  of  all 
those  frivolities  that  enervate  character.  In 
such  a  situation,  the  problem  of  preserving 
nervous  balance,  wholesome  simplicity,  and 
close  family  fellowship  becomes  very  serious. 

156.  (4)  Tendency        Another  set  of  causes  for 

to    Luxury.  xi.  i      i-  j.  i 

the     decline     in     parental 

training  may  be  found  in  the  rapid  increase 

of  material  possessions.    "VVe  live  in  a  period 

of  increasing  incomes  for  the  masses  as  well 

as  increasing  fortunes  for  the  wealthy.     The 


THE    FAMILY  281 


effect  upon  the  family  is  direct  and  im- 
mediate. The  spirit  of  self-indulgence  is 
encouraged,  and  the  homely  virtues  of  Poor 
Richard's  Almanac  are  forgotten  if  not 
despised.  Luxury  is  not  definable  in  any 
numerical  way,  but  the  spirit  of  it  is  this :  If 
you  want  a  thing,  and  have  the  means  of  get- 
ting it,  get  it,  of  course.  The  result  is  soft- 
ness, the  decay  of  active  human  sympathies, 
fondness  for  display,  the  creation  of  artificial 
tastes,  the  regarding  of  luxuries  as  necessities, 
the  acceptance  of  artificial  standards  with 
respect  to  persons  and  society,  and  a  tendency 
to  relax  wholesome  moral  restraints.  These 
things  are  happening,  not  only  among  the 
wealthy,  but  also  among  the  masses.  The 
scale  of  expenditure  and  of  display  tends 
everywhere  to  be  the  measure  of  men.  In- 
stead of  keeping  ahead  of  their  expenses  by 
economy  of  outgo,  men  think  only  of  increas- 
ing their  income,  and  so  they  involve  them- 
selves in  an  unending  chase  which  constantly 
increases  in  rapidity.  Upon  children  the 
effect  of  all  this  is  to  prevent  the  development 
of  the  sturdy  virtues.  Home  becomes  a  col- 
lection of  things  instead  of  a  community  of 
persons.  The  parents  become  dispensers  of 
cash   instead   of   confidential   friends.     And 


282     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

how  quickly  does  a  child  learn  to  think,  "I 
may  because  I  can."  Money  then  becomes  a 
curse.  Liberty  becomes  license,  and  the 
impersonal  goods  that  the  parents  have  pro- 
vided become  a  mere  paint  to  conceal  a  de- 
caying moral  structure. 

157.  How  Improve        To  enumerate  these  weak- 

Home  1     ,1  a 

Training?  nesses    and    the    causes    oi 

them  in  the  light  of  our 
general  principle  of  the  sharing  of  life  is  al- 
ready to  indicate  the  directions  in  which  ef- 
forts for  improvement  should  be  made.  It 
will  be  sufficient,  therefore,  merely  to  name 
these  directions.  First,  parents  should  recog- 
nise that  the  family  is,  by  primary  intent,  an 
educational  institution,  and  that  its  work  can- 
not possibly  be  done  by  the  Sunday  school,  the 
week-day  school,  or  any  agencies  other  than 
the  parents  or  those  who,  because  of  the  death 
or  disability  of  parents,  stand  in  their  place. 
Second,  life  should  be  simplified  by  reducing 
the  number  of  its  interests  so  that  time  can  be 
secured  for  family  companionship.  If  a  choice 
must  be  made  between  living  with  one's  chil- 
dren and  any  competing  interest,  whether  the 
increase  of  wealth,  social  enjoyments,  even 
philanthropic  and  religious  activities,  there 
should  be  no  hesitation  in  choosing  in  favor  of 


THE    FAMILY  283 


one's  own  children.  Third,  if  necessary,  let 
some  ingenuity  and  expense  be  devoted  to  de- 
vising home  occupations  for  the  children,  es- 
pecially occupations  in  which  parents  and 
children  share.  No  house  is  too  good  to  be  a 
Avorkshop  for  boys  and  girls.  On  the  other 
hand,  no  boy  or  girl  should  be  above  perform- 
ing simple  household  services.  To  be  "  above ' ' 
this  is  really  to  remain  below  it.  In  order  to 
have  his  boy  near  him  as  much  as  possible,  a 
professional  gentleman,  at  considerable  trou- 
ble to  himself,  provided  in  his  own  office 
steady  occupation  for  specific  days  and 
hours  of  each  week.  Other  parents  specify 
simple  daily  tasks  about  the  house  for  each 
child.  In  other  cases,  gardening,  or  carpen- 
try and  cabinet  work,  or  training  in  cookery 
and  household  care,  are  provided.  Some  par- 
ents, in  order  to  cultivate  a  sense  of  the  value 
of  money,  give  no  spending  money  to  their 
children  except  in  pay  for  definite  labor.  It 
need  hardly  be  added  that  these  physical 
means  of  training  should  be  accompanied  by 
fellowship  in  the  reading  of  good  literature. 
Reading  aloud  around  the  family  hearth  is  an 
excellent  means  of  cementing  children  and 
their  parents.  Fourth,  let  regular  family  de- 
votions be  re-established.     If  daily  devotions 


284     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

cannot  be  gotten  into  the  day's  routine,  then 
let  weekly  devotions  be  held.  It  will  almost 
always  be  found  possible,  however,  to  have  at 
least  short  daily  devotions.  Grace  before 
meat,  could,  if  necessary,  be  expanded  into  the 
reading  of  a  short  passage  of  Scripture  and 
the  offering  of  a  short  prayer.  The  method 
of  family  devotions  may  well  be  varied,  so  as 
to  avoid  staleness  and  routine.  To  this  end, 
printed  prayers  and  responses  will  be  found 
useful,  either  regularly  or  occasionally. 
Fifth,  there  must  be  specific  home  instruction 
in  the  truths  of  religion.  But  it  will  come 
most  naturally  in  the  form  of  conversation, 
rather  than  in  the  stereotyped  mode  of  the 
catechism.  The  oftener  it  comes  in  response  to 
the  child's  own  questions,  the  better.  It  can 
easily  be  attached  to  the  passages  of  Scripture 
that  are  dear  to  children  as  well  as  to  adults. 
In  this  part  of  home  training,  of  course,  all 
the  principles  of  instruction  already  unfolded 
in  earlier  chapters  are  applicable.  Sixth,  let 
the  family,  not  the  individual,  be  the  unit  of 
church  membership.  It  is  dangerous,  often 
fatal,  for  the  children  to  think  of  themselves 
as  outside  the  religious  fellowship  which  their 
parents  enjoy.  Some  churches  do  already  re- 
gard  the    children    of    members    as   likewise 


THE    FAMILY  285 


within  the  church  fellowship.  This  should 
be  the  case  in  all  churches,  and  the  fact  should 
be  made  known  to  the  children,  so  that  they 
may  always  think  of  themselves  as  growing  up 
within  the  church. 


CHAPTER  XVII 


THE   SUNDAY   SCHOOL 


158.  Aim  of  the  jn   accordance   with   the 

Sunday  School.  ^.  ..  i.        i- 

entire  conception  or  reli- 
gious education  thus  far  presented,  the  aim 
of  the  Sunday  school  may  be  defined  as  the 
normal  development  of  the  spiritual  life  of  its 
pupils.  This  aim  makes  of  the  Sunday 
school,  not  a  Bible  school,  but  a  school  of  re- 
ligion. The  test  of  its  efficiency  at  every 
point  will  be,  not  how  much  of  the  Bible  the 
child  has  learned,  but  what  the  child  has  be- 
come.^ This  aim  will  not  exclude,  but  in- 
clude, moral  training.  To  relegate  moral 
training  to  the  home  and  the  public  school, 
reserving  the  Sunday  school  for  specifically 
spiritual  culture,^  is  to  run  some  risk  of  not 
effecting  the  unification  of  religion  and  mor- 
als.'    It  is  true,  as  urged,  that  the  Sunday 

^  See  quotation  from  Munroe  in  §  8,  note  1 ;  also  Burton 
and  Mathews :  Principles  and  Ideals  for  the  Sunday 
School  (Chicago,  1903),  Part  I,  Chapter  I ;  Cf.  The  Sun- 
day-School Outlook  (New  York,  1901),  page  56:  "The 
purpose  of  the  church  In  her  teaching  is  not  to  educate 
a  mind  but  to  develop  a  life." 

*  M.  C.  Brown  :  Sunday-School  Movements  In  America 
(New  York,  1901),  page  178. 

»  See  the  Preface  of  the  present  work. 


THE    SUNDAY    SCHOOL  28T 

school,  with  its  one  hour  a  week,  gives  little 
opportunity  for  the  practice  of  virtue,  out  of 
which  alone  sound  moral  training  can  be  re- 
ceived. But  the  inference  from  this  is  that 
the  active,  all-the-week  side  of  Sunday-school 
work  should  be  further  developed. 

159.  Making  the  One  of   the    chief   prob- 

Sunday  School  a       ,  ,     „  .i         oi       j 

School.  lems    before     the     Sunday 

school  today  is  how  to  make 
of  it  a  real  school.  The  solution  consists,  in 
general,  in  the  adoption  of  methods  based 
upon  psychological  knowledge  and  the  princi- 
ples of  education.  This  statement,  though  it 
implies  that  the  Sunday  school  is  faulty,  does 
not  by  any  means  condemn  or  express  any 
cold  appreciation  of  the  history  of  this  admir- 
able institution.  It  simply  points  out  the  op- 
portunity to  make  its  future  worthy  of  its 
past  by  developing  its  latent  possibilities.^ 

*  Since  the  early  days  of  the  Sunday  school  five  dis- 
tinct advances  have  been  made :  1.  As  to  pupils,  from 
neglected  and  vicious  children  to  all  classes  of  children, 
and  even  to  adults.  2.  As  to  teachers,  from  a  few 
paid  teachers  to  a  vast  army  of  men  and  women  who 
give  their  services  for  Christ's  sake.  3.  As  to  scope  of 
instruction,  from  general  education — reading,  writing, 
etc. — to  the  Bible  specifically.  The  Bible  has  also  largely 
superseded  the  catechism.  4.  As  to  method,  from  mem- 
orising texts  to  studying  passages.  5.  As  to  material, 
from  random  choices  of  Biblical  passages  to  systematic, 
uniform  lessons. 

Growing  out  of  the  Sunday-school  movement,  or  ai 
'oast  connected  with  it,  the  following  great  gains  have 
\ccrued  to  the  church  :  1.  The  teaching  function  of 
the  church  has  received  new  and  positive  emphasis.  2. 
Each  local   church  has  acquired  a  specific  organ  for  re- 


288     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

160.  The  Church  As  soon  as  we  begin  to 

contemplate  the  possibilities 
of  the  Sunday  school  as  a  school  of  religion, 
we  discover  that  our  problem  widens  out.  For 
other  church  agencies,  as  the  young  people's 
society,  are  also  attempting  the  religious  de- 
velopment of  the  young.  The  Sunday-school 
problem,  therefore,  cannot  be  separated  from 
that  of  co-ordinating  and  unifying  the  entire 
educational  work  of  the  local  church.  In- 
deed, we  now  reach  the  conception  that  the 
local  church  is,  among  other  things,  a  school 
of  religion,  of  which  the  Sunday  school  is  sim- 
ply a  department.  The  church  as  a  school 
needs  to  be  organised  and  systematised.  All 
its  work  on  behalf  of  the  immature  is,  or 
should  be,  educational ;  it  should  proceed  from 
the  developmental  point  of  view.  There 
should  be  a  definite  plan  for  the  child  from 
his  infancy  to  the  close  of  adolescence.  This 
implies,  finally,  the  organisation  of  the  church 
and  the  family  into  educational  unity. 

liglous  education.  3.  An  army  of  workers  has  been 
enlisted.  However  defective  their  work  may  be,  the 
mere  fact  that  laymen  to  the  number  of  millions  are 
regularly  and  systematically  trying  to  do  something  for 
the  young  is  of  great  moment.  4.  A  great  number  of 
young  lives  has  been  led  to  conscious  disclpleship,  and 
the  Bible  has  been  carried  to  many  an  unchurched  region. 
5.  Christian  union  has  been  fostered  through  the  uni- 
forin  Jesgoo  system,  the  convention  system,  etc. 


THE    SUNDAY    SCHOOL  289 

161.  Need  of  Such  a  scheme  calls  for 

Leadership.  expert    leadership.      Of 

course,  anyone  who  sees 
how  to  make  any  improvement  whatever  is  to 
that  extent  an  expert,  and  he  should  proceed 
at  once  to  do  what  he  can.  Yet  expert  leader- 
ship in  the  strict  sense  is  as  necessary  in  the 
educational  department  of  a  church  as  in  a 
public  school  or  a  steel  mill.  In  most  church- 
es the  pastor  must  act  as  superintendent  of 
education ;  but  in  large  churches  this  function 
is  sometimes  laid  upon  an  assistant  pastor 
who  has  received  special  training  in  educa- 
tion. Who  shall  be  principal  of  the  Sunday 
school  is  another  matter.  An  experienced 
teacher  or  principal  from  some  public  school, 
or  some  intelligent  business  man  with  large  ca- 
pacity for  organisation,  may  often  be  secured 
for  this  position.  But  in  any  case,  the  head 
of  the  local  church  is  likewise  the  head  of  its 
educational  work.  From  him  must  come  in 
large  measure  the  setting  of  ideals  and  the  in- 
spiration to  work  for  them.  Hence,  one  of 
the  strategic  positions  now  to  be  won  is  that 
all  candidates  for  the  Christian  ministry 
should  be  trained  in  the  principles  of  educa- 
tion.^ 

^  See  address  by  Walter  L.  Hervey  in  the  Proceedings 
of    the    Religious    Mucation    Association,    1903.      It    te 


290     EDUCATION    IN   RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

162.  Training  of  A  serious  injustice  is  be- 

ing  done  to  teachers  in  the 
Sunday  school  by  demanding  from  them  high- 
grade  results  while  we  neglect  to  furnish 
either  proper  tools  for  the  work  or  proper 
training  in  its  technical  phases.  Many 
schools  have  no  teachers'  library  and  no 
training  class.^  The  teachers  are  required  to 
make  bricks  without  straw.  Even  where  a 
teachers'  meeting  is  held  its  work  is  generally 
a  mere  hand-to-mouth  study  of  the  next  Sun- 
day's lesson.^  This  is  not  the  way  to  get 
sound  educational  principles  into  the  Sunday 
school,  or  even  to  secure  such  knowledge  of 
the  Bible  as  every  teacher  should  have.  The 
teachers'  training  class  should  consider  the 
following  subjects:     (1)  The  general  princi- 

hlghly  encouraging  to  find  many  theological  schools  Intro- 
ducing courses  in  education.  It  foretells  a  time  when 
this  part  of  a  clergyman's  training  will  be  attended  to 
as  carefully  as  his  training  in  doctrine  or  church  his- 
tory. For  the  special  training  of  Sunday-school  experts 
and  all  others  who  intend  to  make  a  specialty  of  religious 
education  there  already  exists  one  school,  the  Hartford 
School  of  Religious  Pedagogy,  at  Hartford,  Conn. 

1  At  least  one  state  Sunday-school  association,  that 
of  Washington,  is  at  work  inducing  the  Sunday  schools 
to  purchase  teachers'  libraries. 

'  Our  fixed  habits  blind  us  to  the  seriousness  of  this 
question.  A  recent  writer  advises  that  once  in  several 
years  the  pastor  organize  a  normal  class,  and  he  thinks 
that  ten  or  fifteen  studies  of  one  hour  each  will  be  suf- 
ficient !  As  to  the  art  of  teaching,  he  thinks  that  the 
essentials  are  a  knowledge  of  the  material  and  "the  best 
possible  way  of  expressing  it."  He  then  proceeds  to 
ridicule  the  demand  for  a  study  of  child-nature. — T.  H. 
Pattison :  The  Ministry  of  the  Sunday  School  (Phila- 
delphia, 1902),  pages  174-179. 


THE    SUNDAY    SCHOOL  291 

pies  of  education,  with  sufficient  general  psy- 
chology to  make  them  clear  and  concrete.  (2) 
The  special  psychology  of  religious  develop- 
ment. (3)  Special  Sunday-school  methods 
(kindergarten,  primary,  intermediate,  etc.). 
(4)  General  introduction  to  the  Bible,  special 
introduction  to  its  various  books,  and  Bible 
history.  (5)  Cultivation  of  the  personal  spir- 
itual life  The  teachers'  library  should  cover 
all  these  subjects,  and  in  addition  it  should 
contain  at  least  a  small  outfit  of  reference 
works  on  the  Bible  (Bible  dictionary,  com- 
mentaries, maps,  etc.). 

163  Graded  The  need  of  grading  the 

Schools  and  •!     i         i  i 

Graded  Lessons.  pupils  has  long  been  recog- 
nised, but  the  principle  that 
underlies  it  requires  gradation  of  the  lesson 
material  also.  That  principle  has  been  un- 
folded at  length  in  Chapters  VII,  XIV,  and 
XV.  Mental  development  takes  its  start  at 
every  point  in  spontaneous  interests;  it  pro- 
ceeds by  assimilation  or  apperception,  which 
depends  upon  preceding  experience ;  finally, 
the  spontaneous  interests  and  the  stock  of  ex- 
periences change  from  period  to  period. 
Hence,  in  order  to  adapt  instruction  to  the 
growing  pupil,  the  material  presented  to  him 
must  be  changed   from  time  to  time.     This 


292     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

principle  is  already  recognised  in  the  Inter- 
national Lesson  system  in  its  provision  for 
special  lessons  for  the  primary  department. 
It  is  also  recognised  in  the  lesson  system  of  the 
Bible  Study  Union,  and  in  the  "supplemental 
lessons"  that  are  urged  as  an  accompaniment 
of  the  International  Lessons.  But  in  none  of 
these  is  the  principle  fully  adopted.  Several 
systems  of  fully  graded  lessons,  however,  are 
already  in  use  here  and  there,^  the  number  of 
schools  using  such  lessons  is  increasing,  and 
several  educators  of  experience  have  been  for 
some  time  carefully  studying  the  problem  of 
constructing  a  complete  Sunday-school  curric- 
ulum that  shall  be  adapted  to  the  stages  of 
growth.  There  is  little  reason  to  doubt  that, 
gradually,  with  due  regard  to  existing  cus- 
toms and  usages,  the  International  and  other 
systems  will  adopt  fully  graded  curricula. 

164.  Methods  of  For  the  grading  of  pu- 

Grading  Pupils.  .,  j-   ,•         -1.11! 

pus,  as  distinguished  from 

the  grading  of  lesson  material,  either  of  two 
principles  may  be  used.  One  of  them  is  based 
directly  upon  the  periods  of  mental  develop- 
ment. This  basis  yields  at  once  three  main 
divisions  or  departments,  representing  respec- 

1  See  address  of  D.  S.  Ullrlck  in  the  Proceedings  of  the 
Religious  Education  Association,  1904. 


THE    SUNDAY    SCHOOL  293 

lively  infancy  and  childhood,  adolescence 
(early  and  middle),  and  adult  life  (later  ado- 
lescence included).^  The  reason  for  including 
later  adolescence  in  the  adult  division  is  that 
at  this  period  youths  assume  adult  responsibil- 
ities and  receive  therefrom  the  closing  part  of 
their  general  education.-  The  second  method 
of  grading  pupils  is  simply  to  transfer  to  the 
church  school  the  set  of  grades  now  prevailing 
in  the  public  schools.  This  is  a  simple,  prac- 
ticable scheme,  and  it  has  the  advantage  of  ex- 
ternally representing  to  both  the  child  and 
the  teacher  the  unity  of  education.-'  In  larger 
schools,  at  least,  it  is  well  to  have  a  superin- 

'  See  Chapters  XIV  and  XV. 

^  It  is  desirable,  of  course,  that  each  department  ex- 
cept the  third  be  subdivided  into  as  many  parts  as  tho 
years  that  it  includes,  so  that  the  pupil  may  make  def- 
Ipite  advance  from  one  grade  to  another  each  year.  A 
simple  organisation  based  upon  the  periods  of  growth 
would  be  as  follows :  I.  Primary  Department,  to  and 
including  the  age  of  eleven.  II.  Intermediate  De- 
partment, twelve  to  eighteen  inclusive.  III.  Adult  De- 
partment, nineteen  onwards.  A  more  elaborate  organ- 
isation on  the  same  basis  would  be  as  follows :  I. 
Cradle  Roll,  composed  of  infants  not  old  enough  to  at- 
tend Sunday  school,  but  enrolled  as  members.  II. 
Kindergarten,  from  four  to  six  inclusive.  III.  Primary 
Department,  seven  to  eleven  inclusive.  IV.  Intermediate 
(or  Junior)  Department,  twelve  to  fifteen  inclusive.  V. 
Senior  Department,  sixteen  to  eighteen  inclusive.  VI. 
Graduate  Department,  nineteen  onwards. 

^  A  simple  organisation  upon  this  basis  would  be  as 
follows:  I.  Cradle  Roll.  II.  Kindergarten.  III.  El- 
ementary School,  seven  to  thirteen  or  fourteen.  IV. 
Secondary  School,  fourteen  or  fifteen  to  eighteen.  V. 
The  Church  College,  nineteen  onwards.  If  desired,  the 
Elementary  School  can  easily  be  subdivided  into  a 
Primary  (seven  to  ten),  and  a  Junior  (eleven  to  thirteen 
or  fourteen)    Department. 


294     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION  AND   MORALS 

tendent  for  each  department,  so  that  its  spe- 
cial problems  may  be  studied,  and  the  respon- 
sibility of  management  be  fixed  and  definite. 
In  addition  to  the  departments  named,  an 
Extension  Department  may  be  organised  for 
the  promotion  of  Bible  study  at  home  or  in 
other  places  outside  the  Sunday-school  rooms.^ 

165.  structure  of  Whatever  the  method  of 

the  Curriculum.  ,.  ,,  .,  ,, 

grading     the     pupils,     the 

gradation  of  lesson  material  should  be  based 
upon  the  periods  of  mental  development,  but 
with  clear  recognition  of  the  spiritual  aim  of 
the  school,  and  indeed  of  the  possibility  of 
making  it  Christian  from  beginning  to  end.* 
The  tabular  view  herewith  presented  exhibits 
the  results  of  a  few  typical  attempts  to  con- 
struct a  curriculum  upon  the  general  basis  of 
the  periods  of  development. 

Of  course  a  tabular  view  like  this  must  omit 

*  A  study  of  the  advantages  of  grading  pupils  will  be 
found  in  J.  L.  Hurlbut :  Seven  Graded  Sunday  Schools 
(Nev?  York:     Eaton  &  Mains). 

=  See  Chapter  XIII.  §  §  120-122.  It  seems  to  be  a  fact 
that  Interest  in  the  New  Testament,  especially  the  Gos- 
pels and  the  Acts,  becomes  acute  not  far  from  the  end 
of  early  adolescence.  This  is  the  time  when  we  should 
expect  the  inner  life  of  Christ  and  the  apostles  to  be- 
come interesting.  But  it  by  no  means  follows  that  study 
of  the  life  of  Christ  should  be  postponed  to  adolescence. 
The  proper  inference  is  rather  that  other  aspects  of 
his  life  should  be  studied  in  the  earlier  periods.  See 
George  E.  Dawson's  article  on  "Children's  Interest  in 
the  Bible,"  in  the  Pedagogical  Seminary,  Volume  VII, 
page  151  ;  also  addresses  by  L.  T.  Cole  and  Samuel  T. 
Dutton  in  The  Sunday-School  Outlook  (New  York,  1901). 


Ages 

1 

Burton  and  Mathews 

First  Union  Presbyterian 
Sunday-School,     New  York 

Ages 

3 

to 
8 

Stories— Pla}'— Picture- Work 

Stories — Texts— I<ord's  Prayer 

3 

to 
6 

7 

Biblical  and  other  Stories 
Topically  Arranged— 
Pictures — Verses 

Nature  and  Wonder-Stories — 
Texts— Ps.  23 

7 

8 

O.  T.  Stories — Texts — Short  Form 
of  Commandments 

8 

9 

O.  T.  Heroes— Ps.  1, 19— Command- 
ments—Memory  Passages 

9 

lO 

Books  of  the  Bible 

Wfe  of  Christ— Texts— Apostles' 
Creed— Beatitudes 

lO 

II 

I<ife  of  Jesus 

O.  T.  History,  Moses  to  Samuel- 
Sayings  of  Jesus— Missionary 
Stories— Proverbs— Biography 

1  1 

12 

Old-Testament  Heroes 

O.  T.  History,  David  tc  Isaiah- 
Sayings  of  Jesus — Proverbs- 
Missionary  Biography 

12 

13 

I4ves  of  the  Apostles 

O.  T.  History,  Jeremiah  to  Christ- 
Sayings  of  Jesus,  Paul,  Prophets— 
I  Cor,  13 — Missionary  Biography 

I<ife  of  Christ— Readings— Ex- 
positions— Missionary  Biography 

13 

14 

I  Samuel 
Gospel  of  Mark 

14 

15 

Isaiah,  Chaps.  1-12 
Acts,  Chaps.  1-12 

Apostolic  History — Outlines 
Church  History— Missionary 
Biography — Church  Heroes 

16 

16 

The  Psalms 

I  Peter— Acts,  Chaps.  13-28 

Teachings  of  Jesus— Outlines 
Church  History— Biography 

16 

17 

Old  Testament  History  Begun 

Teachings  of  Apostles — Church 
History— Biography 

17 

18 

Old  Testament  History  Completed 

Teachings  of  the  Prophets 

18 

19 

lyife  and  Teachings  of  Jesus 

Elective 
Courses 

19 

20 

oa 

Apostolic  Age- 
Elective  Courses 

20 

on 

» Principles  and  Ideals  for  the  Sunday  School  (Chi- 
cago, 1903). 

-  An  outline  of  this  course,  with  suggestions  as  to  text- 
books, may  be  had  by  sending  a  request  therefor  to  the 


New  York 
Sunday-School  Commission 

3 
Haslktt 

AG£S 

Biblical  Stories— Myths— Nature- 
Study^Real-I<ife  Stories 

3 

to 

6 

Biblical  Stories 
Topically  Arranged — 

Studies  from  Nature— Bible  Scenes 
and  Characters — Other  I,iterature 

Biographies— Realistic  Studies 
in  the  I,ife  of  Christ 

7 
8 

O.  T.  History  (to  the  Return)— 
Biography  from  Old  and  New 

Testaments- 
Life  of  Christ  in  Outline— 
Nature— General  Biography,  His- 
tory and  Literature- 
Acts  (Brief  Studies) 

9 

Catechism— Prayer-Boot— 
The  Church  Year 

iO 

Old  Testament  Stories 

1  1 

Old  Testament  Stories 

Biographies  from  both  Testaments 
and   from   Christian    and   other 
Historj' — 
History    of  Israel  in  its  Entirety — 
Character  and  Teachings  of  Christ — 
Studies  in  Acts — The  Age  of 

Chivalry— Biblical  Poetry- 
Literature 

12 

lyife  of  Christ 

13 

Christian  Ethics 

14 

Christian  Doctrine 

Prophets,  Missionaries,  Life, 

Times  and  Character  of  Christ — 
Studies    in    History    and     Biog- 
raphy— 
History  of  Entire  Bible- 
Biblical  Poetry— History  of  Church 
—Literature — Acts  and  Epistles 

15 

Teachings  of  Christ  or 
Old  Testament  History 

16 

Apostolic  Church 

17 

Church  History— Missions 

Normal  Courses  and 

Elective  Studies 

18 

Teaching  Methods 

19 

20 

on 

Sunday    School    Commis 
York. 

'S.   B.   Haslett:     The 
York,  1903). 

sion,    29    Lafayette    Place,    New 
Pedagogical  Bible  School   (New 

THE    SUNDAY    SCHOOL  299 

many  details.  Yet  even  this  outline  is  won- 
drously  suggestive.  First  of  all,  it  suggests 
the  wealth  of  material  that  is  at  the  disposal 
of  the  Sunday  school.  The  whole  revelation 
of  God  as  it  is  set  forth  in  Bible  history,  in 
the  history  of  the  church,  in  general  history 
and  literature,  and  in  nature,  is  proper  sub- 
ject-matter for  instruction.  In  the  next 
place,  we  are  here  reminded  of  the  exceeding 
value  of  stories  and  biographies  in  character- 
formation.  Finally,  we  discern,  from  the 
general  agreement  of  curricula  arising  from 
different  sources,  that  a  practical  working 
principle  for  the  gradation  of  lessons  has  been 
reached.  The  material  is  so  abundant  that 
variations  in  details  are  to  be  expected.  It  is 
also  to  be  remembered  that  age-limits  can  be 
fixed  with  only  a  general  approximation  to 
accuracy.  Yet  the  general  order  of  studies 
is  clearly  marked.  Beginning  with  detached 
stories  and  texts,  it  passes  on  to  more  con- 
nected stories,  history,  and  biographies.  Sub- 
jectively this  is  the  passage  from  imagination 
to  memory  and  reason.  Developing  still  fur- 
ther in  this  direction,  the  curriculum  goes  on 
from  history  and  biography  as  relatively  ex- 
ternal occurrence  to  the  moral  and  spiritual 
principles    contained    therein.     At    the    end 


SOO     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

come  normal  courses  and  elective  courses 
which  bring  the  pupil  into  immediate  contact 
with  present  life  as  viewed  in  the  light  of 
God's  revelation  of  himself.^ 

166.  The  Use  of  a         Concerning  the  use  of  a 

Curriculum.  ^    ^  .      , 

graded  curriculum,  two  or 
three  remarks  may  be  made.  In  the  first 
place,  no  course  of  study  will  teach  itself,  or 
make  up  for  defective  methods,  or  for  defec- 
tive personality  in  the  teacher.  The  trained 
teacher  of  high  and  attractive  personal  qual- 
ities is  the  key  to  the  situation,  whatever  be 
the  curriculum,  though,  of  course,  he  may  be 
seriously  hindered  or  helped  by  ill  or  well 
adapted  material.  In  the  next  place,  any 
part  of  an  outline  of  study  may  succeed  or 
fail  according  to  the  filling  that  is  given  it. 
In  particular,  studies  the  purpose  of  which  is 
largely  formal,  as  learning  the  names  of 
the  books  of  the~  Bible,  can  be  made  most 

^  It  Is  to  be  hoped  that  the  next  International  Sunday- 
School  Convention  will  take  at  least  two  more  steps 
toward  providing  a  system  of  graded  lessons.  The  first 
step  has  already  been  taken  by  providing  special  primary 
lessons.  The  next  step  is  to  provide  connected  and  sys- 
tematic courses  for  older  pupils,  say  of  the  age  of  eighteen 
or  more.  A  third  step  is  to  provide  hero-study  courses 
(with  Jesus  as  the  central  figure)  for  early  adolescence. 
Upon  the  proper  content  of  such  courses  there  would 
probably  be  little  serious  difference  of  opinion.  It  is 
not  too  early  to  provide  graded  work  for  these  three 
stages,  representing  the  beginning,  the  middle,  and  the 
end  of  the  curriculum.  The  Intermediate  parts  woald 
then  be  gradually  filled  In  as  experience  shows  the  way. 


THE    SUNDAY    SCHOOL  301 

successful  only  when  the  form  is  acquired 
through  an  interesting  content.  For  ex- 
ample, the  year  in  the  books  of  the  Bible 
recommended  by  Burton  and  Mathews  is 
not  a  year  of  dry  drill,  but  of  interest- 
ing readings  selected  from  the  various 
books  so  as  to  show  what  they  are  like.  So 
with  memoriter  work :  it  should  be  the  active 
expression  of  the  pupil's  interest  in  the  con- 
tent of  the  passage.  Again,  the  success  of  the 
Sunday-school  curriculum  will  depend,  in  a 
measure,  upon  the  degree  with  which  it  is  co- 
ordinated with  the  week-day  school  curricu- 
lum and  the  other  occupations  of  the  pupil. 
The  Sunday  school  is  not  an  isolated  and  self- 
completed  whole,  but  a  part  of  a  larger  whole. 
Hence,  biblical  poetry  should  be  bror-.ght  into 
direct  connection  with  other  poetry,  biblical 
geography  and  history  with  other  geography 
and  history,  and  so  on.  In  general,  the  teach- 
er will  do  well  to  know  what  his  pupils'  week- 
day occupations  and  interests  are.  Finally,  as 
the  purpose  of  the  school  is  that  the  child  shall 
grow  in  spiritual  life,  all  the  technical  aspects 
of  teaching  should  be  warmed  and  vitalised  by 
the  teacher's  own  sense  of  God's  presence.  So, 
also,  the  act  of  acquisition  on  the  part  of  the 
pupil  should  be  associated  with  worship  and 


302     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

with  active  service  of  one's  fellows.  Is  it  not 
time,  for  instance,  to  cease  holding  opening 
and  closing  "exercises"  and  to  substitute 
therefor  opening  and  closing  worship  in  name 
and  in  fact? 

167.  Materials  for  We  have  seen  that  im- 
Impression.  ^ 

pression  and  expression  go 

together  in  good  teaching.  We  shall  next  in- 
quire, therefore,  into  the  available  material, 
other  than  the  personality  of  the  teacher,  for 
making  vivid  and  correct  impressions.  (1) 
First  comes  the  school  itself — its  order,  its 
combination  of  good  cheer  with  serious  work, 
its  reverential  worship.^  A  disorderly,  irrev- 
erent, or  scolding  teacher  or  officer  misrepre- 
sents religion  in  his  own  person.  The  educa- 
tional effect  of  pupils'  conduct  upon  one  an- 
other, too,  is  so  great  that  discipline  of  the 
right  sort  must  be  maintained  at  any  cost — 
not  the  discipline  of  suppression,  but  of  free- 
dom in  appropriate  occupations.  Nothing  will 
contribute  more  to  good  order  than  providing 
appropriate  expressive  activities  such  as  will 
be  described  in  the  next  section.      A  pupil 

1  The  influence  of  good  and  bad  Sunday-school  music 
deserves  more  attention  than  it  has  received.  See  M.  C. 
Brown:  Sunday-School  Movements  in  America  (New 
York.  1901),  pages  199-207;  also  an  article  by  Frederica 
Beard,  "Religious  Instruction  by  Sunday-School  Hymns," 
IB  the  Biblical  World,   Volume  XVI,  page  18. 


THE    SUNDAY    SCHOOL  303 

who    will    not    conform    to    necessary    order 
should  be  excluded  as  in  other  schools, 

(2)  In  the  work  of  Bible  teaching,  the  Bi- 
ble itself,  not  a  leaf  or  a  quarterly,  is  the 
prime  material.  Nowhere  else  does  a  pupil 
study  a  body  of  literature  by  the  lesson-leaf 
system.  The  fragmentariness  of  the  Bible 
passages,  the  unpedagogic  questions  and  ap- 
plications, the  gew-gaw  printing,  and  the 
flimsiness  of  the  entire  article,  condemn  the 
present  style  of  lesson  leaf.  The  leaf,  wheth- 
er printed  or  otherwise  manifolded,  should 
give  simply  directions  for  study,  with  (per- 
haps) spaces  for  written  replies  to  questions 
to  be  hunted  up  at  home,  outline  maps  to  be 
filled  in  or  colored,  and  space  for  pasting  the 
lesson  picture  as  described  in  the  next  sec- 
tion. 

(3)  The  library  which  should  contain  ref- 
erence books  for  Bible  study,  material  for  the 
study  of  Christian  history  and  biography, 
particularly  books  of  missionary  experience 
and  adventure,  and  such  wholesome  literature 
as  is  not  otherwise  provided  for  the  pupils. 
Any  general  literature  that  is  worth  reading 
may  properly  have  a  place  in  the  Sunday- 
school  library,  but  the  home,  the  public 
library,  and  the  Sunday-school  library  will  do 


304     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

well  to  co-operate  with  one  another  so  as  to 
avoid  waste.  The  old  fashioned  goody-goody- 
Sunday-school  book  should  be  excluded  as  es- 
sentially a  corrupter  (because  a  weakener)  of 
character.^ 

(4)  Maps  and  pictures.  Modern  methods 
of  reproducing  pictures  has  made  it  possible 
to  secure  good  pictorial  illustrations  of  almost 
any  biblical  scene  or  event  at  a  cost  ranging 
from  half  a  cent  apiece  upward.  Many  of 
these  pictures,  being  copies  of  the  world's 
great  masterpieces,  help  to  develop  the 
aesthetic  sense  and  to  bring  it  into  unity  with 
religious  feeling.  A  recent  and  promising  de- 
velopment in  the  use  of  pictures  is  the  study 
of  biblical  geography  with  the  help  of  the 
stereoscope.^ 

168.  Expressive  Next  comes  the  provision 

Activities.  „  .  m-L-        • 

for  expression.  This  in- 
cludes :  ( 1 )  The  hunting  up  and  writing  out 
of  answers  to  significant  questions.  (2)  Tell- 
ing the  story  in  one's  own  words,  writing  it 
out,  or  writing  simple  essays  and  examina- 
tion  papers.     (3)    Coloring   maps   and   pic- 

1  See  Chapter  X,  §  92. 

*  Information  with  regard  to  pictures,  maps,  and  other 
aids  can  be  obtained  from  the  Sunday-School  Commis- 
sion, 29  Lafayette  Place,  New  York.  On  the  use  of  the 
stereoscope,  see  a  pamphlet  by  W.  B.  Forbush  :  The  Il- 
luminated Lessons  on  the  Life  of  Jesus  (New  York : 
Underwood  &  Underwood). 


THE    SUNDAY    SCHOOL  305 

tures,  filling  in  the  details  of  outline  maps,  or 
constructing  maps  to  illustrate  the  lessons. 
In  addition  to  maps  drawn  on  paper,  relief 
maps  are  made  of  sand,  clay,  and  paper  pulp.* 
(4)  Pasting  pictures  illustrative  of  the  lesson, 
and  preserving  all  one's  written  or  picture 
work  for  the  year  or  other  period  in  a  port- 
folio or  note-book.  (5)  Making  drawings  or 
constructing  symbolic  objects  with  which  to 
illustrate  the  lesson.  A  course  in  which  boys 
construct  miniature  tents,  altars,  city  walls, 
shepherds'  crooks,  and  the  like  is  said  to  have 
been  successful.-  (6)  Participation  in  wor- 
ship. (7)  Giving  money  or  other  property. 
The  collection  should  be  educational  in  char- 
acter. Hence  the  money  collected  should  be  a 
gift  to  some  person  or  cause  outside  the 
school,  and  the  pupils  should  give  definite 
study  to  the  object  of  the  gift.  (8)  Service 
of  others,  such  as  visiting  sick  pupils,  provid- 
ing flowers  or  delicacies  for  the  sick,  and 
sharing  books,  toys,  and  other  good  things 
with  neglected  children.  (9)  Elective  courses 
for  the-  adult  department.  Electing  a  course 
may  make  the  whole  of  it  a  means  of  self- 

*  For  Information  apply  to  the  Sunday-School  Com- 
mission,  29  Lafayette  Place,  New  York. 

-  Information  as  to  this  course  for  boys  can  be  had 
from  the  International  Committee  of  Young  Men's 
Christian  Associations,  3  West  29th  Street,  New  York. 


306     EDUCATION   IN   RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

expression.  (10)  Organised  classes,  in  wMcli 
the  pupils  elect  officers,  adopt  a  constitution, 
and  carry  out  various  self-chosen  activities 
more  or  less  directly  connected  with  the  cen- 
tral work  of  Sunday-school  instruction.  These 
activities  may  be  social,  athletic,  philanthrop- 
ic, or  evangelistic.  Organising  a  class  of  ado- 
lescent boys  into  a  club  is  sometimes  the  most 
direct  way  to  secure  their  attendance  and  in- 
terest.^ 

169.  The  Sunday  That  attendance  at  Sun- 

Public  Worship.  <3ay  school  should  not  be  a 
substitute  for  public  wor- 
ship is  clear,  for  any  such  substitution  tends 
to  prevent  the  child  from  realising  his  unity 
with  the  whole  church.  But  how  to  effect  a 
connection  between  the  school  and  public 
worship  is  a  difficult  problem.  Some  pastors 
hold  once  a  week  or  once  a  month  a  chil- 
dren's Sunday  service  like  that  of  the  grown 
parishioners,^     Others  adapt  a  part  of  each 

1  By  means  of  a  club,  witb  social  and  athletic  features, 
the  whole  boy  may  be  touched.  See  Chapter  XVIII. 
For  a  description  of  several  large  adult  classes,  and 
references  to  further  information,  see  P.  G.  Cressey : 
The  Church  and  Young  Men  (Chicago,  1903),  page  64. 
It  is  said  that  the  Presbyterian  base-ball  clubs  of  Chi- 
cago are  a  distinct  power  In  opposition  to  Sunday  base- 
ball. 

*  Examples  :  Maplewood  Congregational  Church,  Mai- 
den, Mass.  (boys'  and  girls'  preaching  service  monthly 
at  4  P.  M.)  ;  Tabernacle  Congregational  Church.  Chicago 
("The  Children's  Church"  every  Sunday  afternoon). 


THE    SUNDAY    SCHOOL  307 

service  to  the  children,  apparently  assum- 
ing that  the  remainder  of  the  service  need 
contain  nothing  for  them,  A  third  plan  is  to 
make  the  entire  service  so  broadly  human,  so 
simple  and  direct,  that  children  as  well  as 
adults  will  find  meaning  in  it.^  Where  such 
is  the  case  some  special  methods  of  stimulating 
atendance  may  be  useful.^ 

170.  Decision -Day  With  the  coming  of  ado- 
lescence the  Sunday  school 
should  help  the  pupil  to  attain  a  healthy  re- 
ligious self-consciousness  and  to  enter  upon 
deliberate  devotion  to  the  kingdom.  This  is 
to  be  understood  as  including  the  attainment 
of  formal  membership  in  the  church.^  To 
this  end  decision-day  has  been  instituted.  The 
name  is  unfortunate,  for  it  implies  previous 
indecision  or  even  opposition.  Yet  it  is  prop- 
er for  the  youth  now  to  ratify  his  early  train- 
ing by  deliberately  acknowledging  allegiance 
to  Christ  and  the  church.  Special  days  for 
bringing  this  process  to  a  focus  are  also  use- 
ful, provided  proper  conditions  are  met.     (1) 

^  See  W.  B.  Forbush :  The  Boy  Problem  (Boston, 
1901),  page  163. 

*  See  G.  W.  Mead  :  Modern  Methods  in  Sunday-School 
Work  (New  York,  1903),  Chapter  XII.  This  book  Is 
scarcely  less  than  a  whole  museum  of  Sunday-school 
methods  and  devices,  with  much  sound  principle  in  the 
discussion  of  them. 

»  See  Chapter  XV,  §  143. 


308     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

Decision-day  should  not  stand  for  a  mere 
spurt  of  special  concern  on  the  part  of  teacher 
or  parent ;  it  should  mark  the  focus  of  a  con- 
stant attitude.  (2)  It  should  not  be  detached 
from  the  work  of  steady  development.  It 
should  be  a  stage  of  such  development,  like 
promotion  from  one  grade  to  another.  Any- 
thing done  by  pupils  of  twelve  to  fifteen  un- 
der the  sudden  pressure  of  strong  emotion  is 
likely  to  be  unimportant— if,  indeed,  it  does 
not  ultimately  discourage  and  repel.  The  pu- 
pil should  be  prepared  for  the  day  by  special 
instruction  as  to  its  significance  and  the  priv- 
ilege for  which  it  stands.  (3)  Decision-day 
methods  are  unadapted  to  pupils  below  ten, 
and  they  are  unsafe  with  pupils  under  eleven 
or  twelve.  Yet  the  younger  pupils  may  be 
taught  to  look  forward  to  a  day  when  they, 
too,  shall  be  ready  for  public  commitment. 
(4)  Parents,  teachers,  and  pastor  should  all 
co-operate.  This  will  necessitate  careful  in- 
struction of  parents  and  of  teachers  long  in 
advance  of  the  day  itself.  (5)  The  day  should 
be  followed  by  specific  instruction  as  to 
the  nature  and  duties  of  discipleship 
and  of  membership  in  the  church.  This  is 
the  work  of  the  pastor's  class,  which  should 
be  in  the  closest  relation  to  the  Sunday  school. 


THK    SUNDAY    SCHOOL  309 


In  some  churches  the  pastor  becomes  for  a 
series  of  weeks  the  regular  teacher  of  classes 
of  young  adolescents.  Here  is  where  catechet- 
ical instruction  or  some  equivalent  therefor 
should  begin.  (6)  Finally,  it  is  of  peculiar 
importance  that  catechumens  should  be  led  to 
the  expression  of  their  religious  aspirations 
and  purposes  in  the  form  of  helpful  service.^ 

171.  Catechetics.  Catechetical      instruction 

has  for  its  immediate  aim 
to  acquaint  the  pupil  with  the  special  history, 
doctrines,  and  usages  of  his  own  church.  For 
reasons  already  given,  the  old-fashioned 
catechism  is  not  adapted  to  any  part  of  edu- 
cational work.-  Whatever  be  the  subject  of 
study,  a  set  of  rigidly  formulated  questions 
and  answers  tends  to  interfer-e  with  the  vital 

^  See  Chapter  VIII,  §  §   68-74. 

2  See  Chapter  X,  §  88.  "The  Church  Catechism  [Protes- 
tant Episcopal]  was  never  intended  to  be  a  pedagogical 
guide  to  the  teaching  of  religion.  It  is  probably  the  most 
admirable  plain  statement  of  the  fundamental  truths  of 
the  spiritual  life  in  existence,  but  it  is  quite  fragmentary 
and  disconnected  in  its  structure,  and  occasional  in  its 
origin." — Rev.  L.  T.  Cole  in  The  Sunday-School  Outlook 
(New  York,  1901),  page  49.  "Whether  they  [catechisms] 
were  more  beneficial  than  harmful  may  be  questioned. 
They  drew  the  children  away  from  the  personal  life  and 
teachings  of  the  Lord  Jesus  to  the  intellectual  process  of 
committing  to  memory  long  dogmatic  definitions.  They 
gave  more  play  to  the  head  than  to  the  heart.  And, 
In  time,  as  might  have  been  expected,  the  catechising 
stiffened  into  a  meclianical  round  of  question  and  an- 
swer. The  soul  went  out  of  it." — G.  B.  Willcox  :  The 
Pastor  and  his  Flock  (New  York.  1890).  pages  115f. 
See  a  symposium  on  catechisms  in  the  Biblical  World, 
Volume  XVI,  page  166. 


SlO     EDUCATION   IN   RELIGION  AND  MORALS 

process  of  assimilation.  Nevertheless  there  is 
need  of  accurate  formulaB  as  a  nieans  of  de- 
fining and  fixing  ideas.  The  problem,  there- 
fore, concerns  the  material  to  be  formulated 
and  the  best  means  of  teaching  it.  The  gen- 
eral principle  is  that  the  material  itself,  the 
fact  or  the  truth,  should  be  taught  rather  than 
the  formula.  That  is,  the  formula  enters  as 
a  means  of  expressing  something  of  which  the 
pupil  already  recognises  the  truth  or  the  real- 
ity. The  technical  formulas  of  Christian 
faith,  accordingly,  should  be  postponed  until 
something  of  the  depth  of  the  Christian  ex- 
perience has  revealed  itself,  that  is,  until  later 
adolesence.  In  early  and  middle  adolescence, 
more  simple  and  directly  practical  formulas 
should  be  used.^ 

172.  The  Teacher  ^n  essential  condition  of 

Himself.  ,      i  •    • 

success  m  catechising,  as  in 
all  religious  teaching,  is  that  the  teacher, 
whether  the  pastor  or  some  other  person, 
should  be  alive,  and  should  impart  his  life  to 
the  pupil.  A  living  teacher  is  more,  too,  than 
an  able  drill-master,  though  to  be  a  really  ef- 
fective drill-master  is  no  small  thing.  The 
best  teacher  is  one  in  whom  the  pupil  feels  the 

*  A  short  list  of  catechisms  constructed  with  reference 
to  these  needs  will  be  found  Chai>ter  X,  §  88,  note. 


THE    SUNDAY    SCHOOL  311 

presence  of  religion  as  a  concrete,  natural, 
and  attractive  thing.  The  pupil  should  feel 
that  he  is  dealing  with  realities  from  begin- 
ning to  end,  and  that  the  symbols  imparted  to 
him  are  really  attained  through  his  own  ef- 
fort. An  old  writer  on  pastoral  theology  re- 
marks that  catechising  is  undoubtedly  instruc- 
tion, "but  it  is  more  properly  an  initiation 
into  the  sacred  mystery  of  the  Christian  life. ' ' 
It  should  therefore  include  action,  and  have 
the  character  of  worship.^  This  is  equally 
true  of  the  best  Sunday-school  teaching  in 
general.  It  is  an  initiation  of  the  pupil  into 
sacred  things,  and  initiation  is  a  process  of 
admitting  one  to  a  society  of  persons,  a  fel- 
lowship. Many  persons  have  been  asked  to 
say  what  in  their  experience  as  Sunday-school 
pupils  most  influenced  them  for  good.  The 
reply— apparently  the  invariable  reply— has 
been,  "The  personality  of  the  teacher  rather 
than  the  content  of  formal  instruction." 
Nothing  in  the  way  of  methods  or  devices  can 
take  the  place  of  wholesome,  winning  person- 
ality, a  personality  that  actually  lives  in  the 
realities  of  the  Christian  experience  and  truly 
admits  pupils  into  the  fellowship  of  this  life. 

1  A.  Vinet :  Pastoral  Theology  (New  York,  1856),  pages 
230f. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 


SOCIETIES  AND  CLUBS 


173.  Significance  During  the  last  half  cen- 

of  the  Young  .  ,  j.x.  x. 

People's  tury  and  more  there  have 

Movement.  have    been    few     religious 

movements  as  significant  as 
the  formation  of  religious  organisations  of 
youths  and  of  young  men  and  young  women. 
The  movement  is  a  general  one.  It  includes 
the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations,  the 
Young  Women's  Christian  Associations,  the 
Christian  Endeavor  Society  and  the  various 
denominational  young  people's  societies  with 
their  offshoots,  the  junior  and  intermediate 
societies,  and  unnumbered  local  clubs  and  or- 
ganised classes.  For  some  of  these  organisa- 
tions there  are  special  reasons,  as  the  increas- 
ing number  of  young  men  and  young  women 
who  are  living  in  cities  away  from  their 
homes,  but  underneath  the  whole  movement 
is  the  great  sustaining  fact  of  the  rapid 
growth  of  the  social  impulse  during  the 
adolescent  years.^     This  of  itself  is  a  suf- 

1  The  late  coming  of  young  people's  organisations  la 
due  to  circumstances.  They  waited  for  favorable  con- 
ditions.     In    the   latter   half   of    the   nineteenth    century 


SOCIETIES     AND     CLUBS  313 

ficient  reason  why  religion  should  take  on 
socialised  forms  in  the  days  of  youth.  But 
these  societies  are  not  merely  a  spontaneous 
form  in  which  religion  clothes  itself ;  they  are, 
or  should  be,  essentially  and  of  design  institu- 
tions for  the  religious  education  of  their 
members.  To  succor  the  distressed,  seek  the 
erring,  support  the  enterprises  of  the  church, 
study  the  Bible,  and  cultivate  spirituality  is 
good  of  itself,  of  course,  yet  these  very  activi- 
ties can  and  should  be  so  organised  and  di- 
rected as  to  be  soundly  educational. 

174.  How  these  The     great     educational 

Educate.  principle  in  all  such  volun- 

tary organisations  is  that  of 
self-expression.  Here  is  also  opportunity  for 
making  fresh  impressions  of  many  kinds,  but 
the  distinctive  fact  is  or  should  be  self -origi- 
nating activities  in  religion.  Such  activities 
do  not  exclude  mature  leadership  any  more 
than  the  self-activity  of  school  pupils  renders 
a  teacher  superfluous.  In  fact,  the  movement 
toward  voluntary  organisations  of  youth  may 

there  was  a  tendency  toward  a  vital  and  practical  rather 
than  dogmatic  conception  of  religious  life  :  there  was  new 
emphasis  upon  the  social  aspects  of  the  gospel :  a  milder 
conception  of  authority  in  both  education  and  religion 
gave  new  scope  to  the  powers  of  the  young ;  finally,  there 
was  a  general  awakening  of  these  powers  through  popu- 
lar education,  through  industrial  conditions,  and  through 
revival  movements  like  those  of  Mr.  Moody  and  Pro- 
fessor Drummond. 


314     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

be  looked  upon  as  a  rough  way  of  supplying 
the  educational  factor  that  has  been  so  great- 
ly lacking  in  the  churches.  Here  is  effort  to 
put  preaching  into  practice,  and  to  supple- 
ment the  impressions  of  the  Sunday  school  by 
active  expression.  More  specifically,  here  is 
culture  of  social  virtues,  such  as  respect  for 
the  rights  and  opinions  of  others,  and  the 
habit  of  co-operation.  Through  self-govern- 
ment there  grows  a  habit  of  deliberation  and 
a  sense  of  responsibility.  Through  deeds  of 
mercy  and  of  helpfulness  the  heart  and  the 
will  acquire  a  permanent  set  toward  the  great 
principle  of  brotherhood.  Churchly  activi- 
ties of  many  kinds  give  the  youth  a  sense  of 
being  a  real  part  of  the  church.  Being  sur- 
rounded by  persons  of  about  his  own  age,  he 
acquires  ability  to  speak  with  greater  freedom 
upon  matters  of  religion.  Some  of  these  or- 
ganisations, as  we  shall  see,  are  imbued  with 
the  idea  of  symmetrical  or  all  'round  devel- 
opment, and  most  of  them  extend  their  activ- 
ities into  several  departments.  The  resulting 
tendency  is  to  give  concreteness  to  religion 
and  to  avoid  the  break  between  religion  and 
everyday  life  that  is  so  deadening  to  many 
efforts  for  religious  education.  It  should  be 
added,  perhaps,  that  here  as  everywhere  ac- 


SOCIETIES     AND     CLUBS  315 

tivity  needs  to  be  directed  by  intelligence. 
Either  in  the  society  itself  or  elsewhere  its 
members  must  be  instructed  and  duly  im- 
pressed with  the  true  proportions  of  things. 
For  example,  here  is  an  excellent  place  for 
cultivating  missionary  zeal,  yet  such  zeal 
should  always  rest  upon  definite  study  of  mis- 
sionary facts. 

175.  Neglect  of  In  some  degree  the  edu- 

the   Educational  ,.        ,  i        ,      ,-i 

Idea.  cational,    or    at    least    the 

training,  idea  of  young  peo- 
ple's societies  is  generally  recognised.  Yet 
the  full  scope  of  this  idea  has  rarely  been 
seen.  The  effort  to  have  an  active  society  is 
rarely  accompanied  by  proportional  effort 
to  direct  activity  toward  truly  educational 
ends.  Confining  our  attention  for  the  mo- 
ment to  a  single  class  of  organisations,  those 
commonly  called  young  people's  societies,  we 
may  say  that  they  have  had  an  undue  amount 
of  immature  leadership.  Not  seldom  the 
crude  religious  ideas  of  the  readiest  talker 
among  the  members  are  proclaimed  as  the  au- 
thoritative voice  of  Holy  Scripture  or  of  Al- 
mighty God.  In  many  societies  there  pre- 
vails a  narrow  and  dogmatic  spirit;  in  some, 
the  cultivation  of  one-sided,  or  even  morbid, 
spiritual  life ;  here  and  there  activity  has  been 


316     EDUCATION    IN   RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

SO  far  separated  from  reflection  that  the  so- 
ciety's life  is  made  up  of  a  shallow  pitter- 
patter  of  pious  sounds  and  acts.  Sometimes 
the  opportunity  for  publicity  or  for  office 
turns  the  mind  of  a  member  away  from  the 
really  serious  concerns  of  life.  Now  and 
then,  under  the  influence  of  older  persons,  a 
local  society,  or  even  a  number  of  such  so- 
cieties, thoughtlessly  takes  a  partisan  attitude 
with  respect  to  some  question  that  divides  the 
sentiment  of  the  church.  Not  uncommonly 
the  pastor  finds  that  he  has  a  church  within  a 
church,  a  body  that  is  not  only  self-governing 
and  self-taught,  but  also  too  self-sufficient  for 
young  persons  who  are  still  in  process  of  be- 
ing educated. 

Further,  the  proper  age  limits  of  these  so- 
cieties has  not  always  been  noted.  These 
limits  are  determined  for  us  by  nature  her- 
self. They  coincide  with  the  limits  of  adoles- 
cence. Though  the  bounds  of  adolescence  arc 
not  absolutely  fixed,  it  is  safe  to  say  that 
there  is  no  sufficient  reason  for  societies  and 
clubs  much  before  the  age  of  twelve  or  after 
the  age  of  thirty.  Within  this  period  there 
will  naturally  be  two,  or  possibly  three 
groups.  Later  adolescence  will  furnish  the 
members  for  one  group,  the  senior  society,  and 


SOCIETIES     AND     CLUBS  317 

early  and  middle  adolescence  the  members  for 
the  junior  society,  or  for  a  junior  and  an  in- 
termediate society.  In  present  practice,  how- 
ever, persons  far  beyond  adolescence  mingle 
with  the  youth  of  the  senior  society  and  take 
away  from  it  its  distinctive  character  and 
function.  On  the  other  hand,  little  children 
are  gathered  into  the  junior  society  as  though 
organisation  per  se  were  the  end  in  view.  One 
consequence  is  the  tendency  to  over-stimula- 
tion of  little  children.  It  is  difficult  to  dis- 
cover any  adequate  reason  why  they  should 
be  expected  to  participate  in  devotional  meet- 
ings as  older  persons  do.  When  such  children 
are  still  further  stimulated  by  the  excitement 
of  publicity  or  of  leadership,  the  effect  cannot 
be  regarded  as  anything  short  of  pernicious.^ 

176.  Unify  the  Reference  has  been  made 

in  the  last  chapter  to  the  ne- 
cessity of  unifying  the  entire  educational 
work  of  the  local  church.  Viewed  from  the 
standpoint  of  system  and  economy  of  force, 
the  present  condition  is  chaotic.  Between  the 
Sunday  school,  the  various  societies,  the  cate- 
chumen's class,  and  the  public  worship  there 

1  Not  long  since  there  was  advertised  in  a  certain  city 
a  junior  rally  for  boys  and  girls  of  wliich  one  of  the 
attractions  was  that  a  little  girl  of  seven  years  was  to 
lead  the  devotional  service ! 


318     EDUCATION   IN   RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

is  no  clearly  recognised  principle  of  differen- 
tiation or  of  co-ordination.  There  is  over- 
lapping in  membership  and  in  function.  The 
same  young  persons  are  carrying  on  Bible 
study  in  their  society  and  in  the  Sunday 
school  without  effecting  any  connection  be- 
tween the  two  plans  of  study  as  to  course, 
method  or  administration.  These  societies  are 
also  conducting  prayer-meetings  whose  rela- 
tion to  the  weekly  prayer-meeting  of  the 
church  is  not  unambiguous.  They  are  likewise 
holding  Sunday  meetings  that  clearly  compete 
with  the  evening  worship.  This  confusion  re- 
sults in  large  measure  from  the  lack  of  a  defi- 
nite educational  idea.  Order  will  be  restored, 
whenever  the  church  recognises  itself  as  a 
school,  provides  for  itself  an  educational  head 
(either  the  pastor  or  someone  else),  and  pro- 
ceeds to  plan  the  church  school  as  other 
schools  are  planned.  One  immediate  result 
of  such  planning  will  be  the  fusing  of  the 
various  systems  of  Bible  study.  One  of  the 
reasons  why  the  Sunday  school  has  a  competi- 
tor in  the  societies  is  the  lack  of  specific  adap- 
tation of  the  Sunday-school  curriculum  to  cer- 
tain stages  of  development.  When  this  defect 
is  removed  there  will  be  no  essential  reason 
for  the  competition. 


SOCIETIES     AND     CLUBS  319 

177.  The  Juniors  Pursuing  the  same  prin- 

and  the  Sunday  i        , -,  ,     ,  , 

School.  ciple,    we   should   probably 

find  that  the  junior  and 
intermediate  societies  could  easily  attain 
all  their  ends  in  a  Sunday  school  prop- 
erly organised  and  managed.  These  so- 
cieties exist  largely  for  the  sake  of  direct 
spiritual  culture.  But  is  not  this  the  aim 
of  the  Sunday  school  also?  If  the  Sun- 
day school  were  to  broaden  out  into  a  school 
of  religion,  it  would  provide  for  direct  spir- 
itual impressions  and  for  spiritual  self-expres- 
sion appropriate  to  each  stage  of  growth.  It 
would  lead  young  adolescents  to  self-commit- 
ment to  Christ  and  to  membership  in  the 
church.  Why,  then,  should  not  the  junior 
society  become  identical  with  the  correspond- 
ing department  of  the  school  ?  Meetings  other 
than  those  of  the  general  school  could  be  held 
whenever  they  were  needed;  officers  could  be 
elected  and  committees  appointed;  in  fact, 
everything  that  is  now  done  by  the  society 
as  a  split-off  body  could  be  done  fully  as  well 
by  a  department  of  the  school.  The  result 
would  be  great  economy  of  energy  on  the 
part  of  adults,  and  positive  gain  in  the  unity 
of  the  pupil's  consciousness. 


320     EDUCATION    Ix\    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

178.  The  Young  With  the  later  adolescents 

People  and  the  -,       p  .-, 

Sunday  School.        who  form  the  senior  young 

people's  society  the  case  is 
not  quite  the  same.  Though  their  Bible 
classes  should  become  a  part  of  the  adult  di- 
vision of  the  school,  the  organisation  as  a 
whole  could  not  coalesce  with  that  division. 
The  adult  classes  contain  persons  widely  vary- 
ing in  age,  and  in  a  department  where  elective 
courses  are  offered  this  is  to  be  expected. 
Further,  in  later  adolescence  we  reach  a  stage 
of  life  in  which  proper  education  requires 
much  in  the  way  of  initiative,  organisation, 
and  responsibility.  Here  we  have  young  citi- 
zens who,  so  to  speak,  are  just  beginning  to 
vote  and  to  carry  the  other  burdens  of  citi- 
zenship. Their  society  is  their  practice  school, 
and  it  will  probably  remain  as  a  permanent 
part  of  our  system  of  religious  education. 
What  it  needs  is  to  become  a  part  of  a  system 
which  shall  embrace  also  the  Sunday  school. 
It  would  then  be  given  mature  leadership. 
This  does  not  imply  any  diminution  of  spon- 
taneity or  of  self-originating  activity,  but 
rather  the  utilisation  for  educational  purposes 
of  the  whole  principle  of  spontaneous  self- 
expression.  As  everywhere  else  in  education, 
SO  here  the  central  need  is  such  leadership  as 


SOCIETIES     AND     CLUBS  321 

grows  out  of  the  genuine  mingling  of  mature 
and  immature  life.  Until  we  adopt  the  educa- 
tional idea  and  secure  such  leadership  we  may 
expect  the  young  people's  society  to  remain 
un-coordinated  and  more  or  less  intractable. 
179.  Vows  and  An   educational  problem 

of  some  importance  has 
arisen  through  the  adoption  by  various  young 
people's  societies  of  a  vow'  or  pledge  as  a  con- 
dition of  membership,  or  at  least  of  active 
membership.  The  problem  is  this:  What  is 
the  effect  upon  character  of  taking  a  vow  (or 
promising  to  God)  to  perform  an  act  that  is 
not  of  essential  and  invariable  moral  author- 
ity, or  to  refrain  from  an  act  that  is  not  essen- 
tially contrary  to  moral  principle?  Why 
should  one  lay  upon  one's  conscience  what  is 
not  laid  upon  it  by  Christ  himself?  On  the 
face  of  it  such  a  vow  contradicts  the  liberty 
wherewith  Christ  has  made  us  free  from  legal- 
ism. It  introduces  an  artificial  factor  where 
Christ  would  give  us  only  life.  This  infringe- 
ment upon  Christian  liberty,  and  this  arti- 
ficiality, make  trouble  in  various  ways.  Some 
young  persons  of  Christian  character  refuse 
to  give  up  their  Christian  liberty  of  judgment 
and  choice  with  respect  to  matters  indifferent 
or  disputable.    Many  others  make  the  promise 


322     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

but  still  assert  their  liberty  by  violating  it. 
Some  obey  it,  but  in  so  doing  they  are  in 
danger  of  forming  an  artificial  conscience, 
that  is,  a  conscience  that  cannot  be  relied  upon 
to  discriminate  between  principle  and  rule, 
end  and  means,  eternal  righteousness  and  the 
opinions  of  men.  Those  who  promise  and  then 
violate  their  word  disorganise  the  moral  fac- 
ulty itself,  moral  perception  becomes  dull,  and 
impulse  seizes  the  scepter. 

If  the  promise  be  understood  as  a  pledge  to 
men  rather  than  as  a  vow  to  God,  it  will  still 
educate  in  the  wrong  way  unless  it  is  en- 
forced. The  educational  value  of  any  rule, 
whether  self-imposed  or  not,  grows  out  of  the 
enforcement  of  it.  An  unenforced  rule  not 
only  falls  into  disrespect ;  it  drags  law  as  such 
into  the  same  disrespect.  The  simple  fact  is 
that  underneath  any  society  that  exacts  a 
pledge  and  then  fails  to  enforce  it  there  is  a 
static  conception  of  life  where  there  should  be 
the  dynamic,  developmental  idea.  The  great 
achievement  is  not  so  much  to  get  young  per- 
sons to  do  certain  things  and  refrain  from 
others,  as  to  develop  such  individual  judgment 
and  conscience  as  will  fit  them  for  correct 
self-guidance. 


SOCIETIES     AND     CLUBS  323 

180.  Boys'  and  Qf  the  various  types  of 

Girls'  Clubs.  ,    u      p       .  ^      •  i 

eluDs  lor  boys  and  girls— 

church  clubs,  settlement  clubs,  street-boys' 
clubs,  mass-clubs  and  small-group  clubs— it  is 
not  necessary  to  speak  except  to  state  their 
central  principle.  In  general,  such  clubs  not 
only  furnish  wholesome  occupation  for  time 
that  might  otherwise  be  misused,  but  also 
opportunity  for  enlarged  self-expression,  es- 
pecially under  the  influence  and  with  the 
friendship  of  a  mature  leader.  It  is  impos- 
sible to  estimate  the  benefit  to  character  that 
comes  from  such  clubs,  even  from  clubs  that 
are  meagrely  equipped  and  blunderingly  man- 
aged. If  there  is  only  a  really  wholesome 
mature  personality  around  which  the  youth 
gather,  the  essential  work  begins.  It  needs  for 
its  proper  growth,  however,  a  variety  of  means 
for  self-expression.  An  instructive  illustra- 
tion of  the  principles  involved  may  be  found 
in  the  junior  departments  of  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Associations.  Here  the  fully 
avowed  idea  is  all  'round  development,  which 
is  properly  assumed  to  imply  development  in 
the  Christian  life.  The  center  is  the  person- 
ality of  the  leader,  who  is  expected  to  work 
with  his  boys,  not  merely  for  them.  He  takes 
an  interest  in  what  interests  them,  promotes 


324     EDUCATION    IN   RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

their  games  and  plays,  assists  them  in  con- 
structive activities,  and  also  leads  them  in 
Bible  study  and  religious  reflection  and  activ- 
ity. The  gymnasium,  that  el  dorado  of  every 
live  boy,  is  made  a  means  of  physical  develop- 
ment as  well  as  of  play.  The  Christian  spirit 
is  assumed  here,  as  it  is  also  on  the  playground 
and  in  the  summer  camp,  as  well  as  in  the 
religious  meeting.  As  a  result  the  boy  gets 
the  idea  that  religion  is  life  and  life  religion. 
It  would  be  extravagant  to  expect  this  rela- 
tively new  movement  to  solve  all  our  boy 
problems  at  once,  yet  it  certainly  sheds  a 
bright  light  where  illumination  was  and  is 
needed.  It  represents  a  true  evangelism  to 
the  young.i  The  naturalness  and  spontaneity 
of  its  methods  and  activities  raises  the  ques- 
tion whether,  in  other  types  of  club,  there  has 
not  been  needless  reserve  respecting  religion. 

*  There  is  no  danger  of  diffusing  religion  too  much 
provided  it  is  brought  to  a  focus  in  consciousness  at 
the  right  time  and  in  the  right  way.  There  lies  before 
me  a  letter  from  one  of  the  leaders  at  a  summer  camp 
for  boys  where,  the  letter  says,  not  less  than  two  score 
boys  reached  the  point  of  personal  commitment  to  Christ. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

CHRISTIAN    ACADEMIES    AND    COLLEGES 

181.  Their  Point  The  theoretical  reason  for 

having  Christian  academies 
and  colleges  is  simply  the  major  premise  of 
all  religious  education,  namely,  that  true  ed- 
ucation is  the  development  of  the  whole  man, 
who  is  essentially  a  religious  being.  Consid- 
ered a  priori,  then,  the  trul}^  Christian  acad- 
emy or  college  presents  the  normal  type  of 
institutions  for  secondary  and  higher  educa- 
tion. Considered  historically,  also,  institu- 
tions of  this  class,  to  which  belong  all  the  older 
universities,  colleges,  and  secondary  schools, 
have  rendered  extraordinary  service  to  learn- 
ing, morals,  and  religion.  But  the  recent 
growth  of  public  high  schools  and  universities, 
which  do  not  commonly  assume  any  distinctive 
Christian  or  religious  mission,  has  brought  to 
the  front  the  whole  question  of  the  place  and 
value  of  the  earlier  type  of  establishment. 
Not  only  so,  but  competition  from  state  insti- 
tutions has  undoubtedly  tended  to  modify, 
consciously  or  unconsciously,  the  spirit  and 
methods  of  church  schools  and  colleges.    This 


826     EDUCATION   IN   RELIGION  AND   MORALS 

is  not  the  place  for  discussing  all  the  broad 
problems  thus  arising,  yet  our  sketch  of  the 
institutions  for  moral  and  religious  education 
would  be  incomplete  without  some  considera- 
tion of  the  general  situation  of  a  youth  who 
seeks  general  education  of  the  secondary  and 
higher  orders. 

182.  Some  What  constitutes  the  dis- 

Weaknesses.  ..  .  i  •  i       i.       .      i 

tmguishmg  mark  oi  a  truly 
Christian  academy  or  college  will  appear  as 
we  proceed.  Whatever  that  mark  is,  it  can- 
not properly  be  substituted  for  good  teaching 
or  for  adequate  equipment  in  any  department 
of  study.  The  parts  of  education  are  not  like 
commodities  which,  having  a  common  measure 
of  value,  can  be  substituted  the  one  for  the 
other  without  loss.  As  there  is  no  substitute 
for  the  proper  training  of  character,  so  also 
there  is  none  for  good  teaching  of  algebra, 
or  Latin,  or  physics.  The  expensiveness  of 
laboratories  and  of  trained  teachers,  and  the 
apparent  cheapness  of  piety,  have  led  in  not 
a  few  cases  to  what  amounts  to  a  fraud  upon 
the  young.  This  is  not  too  severe  a  character- 
isation of  an  institution  that  seeks  power 
over  the  young  without  first  qualifying  itself 
to  exercise  that  power.  The  very  first  condi- 
tion of  making  any  academy  or  college  truly 


CHRISTIAN    ACADEMIES   AND    COLLEGES     327 

Christian  is  to  give  it  adequate  equipment  for 
doing  everything  that  it  professes  to  do. 

Again,  the  essential  mark  of  a  Christian 
academy  or  college  is  not  partisan  zeal  of  any 
kind,  whether  the  zeal  of  the  sectarian,  or  that 
of  the  conservative,  or  that  of  the  radical. 
True  education  must  be  as  broad  as  human 
nature,  and  it  contains  a  radical  defect  when 
it  does  not  tend  to  overcome  the  limited  views 
of  the  very  churches  that  patronise  it.  The 
law  of  saving  life  by  losing  it  applies  to 
churches  as  well  as  to  individuals.  The 
church  that  is  most  certain  that  it  has 
the  truth  should  be  foremost  in  granting  to 
education  the  liberty  that  is  its  life's  breath, 
w^hile  dogmatism  in  education  should  be 
looked  upon  as  a  sign  of  timidity  rather 
than  of  faith.  True  conservatism  lies  in  feed- 
ing the  whole  man,  and  in  freeing  him  wholly, 
just  as  the  general  principles  of  education  de- 
mand. If  a  church  institution  that  is  con- 
ducted in  this  spirit  tends  to  modify  the 
church  life  itself,  tends  to  lead  the  church  and 
not  merely  to  follow,  let  that  church  rejoice, 
for  it  is  attaining  the  results  that  are  to  be 
expected  from  education. 

That  this  is  not  the  universal  view  of  the 
relation  of  a  church  to  its  educational  institu- 
tions is  certain.    They  are  sometimes  expected 


S28     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

merely  to  hand  down  unchanged  the  tradi- 
tions that  they  receive.  They  are  required  to 
furnish  weapons  against  thought-tendencies 
of  the  time  that  are  condemned  before  they 
are  heard.  They  are  commonly  a  source  of 
anxiety  as  though  education  as  such  were  half 
distrusted.^  This  is  surely  a  weakness.  It  is 
to  give  and  to  withhold,  to  say  yes  and  no  at 
the  same  time.  It  involves  lack  of  the  faith 
in  education  through  which  alone  its  proper 
ends  can  be  realised. 

183.  What  Makes  What,  then,  is  the  posi- 

an    Institution  ,.  ,       „      ^,     .    .. 

Christian?  tive  mark  01  a  Christian  in- 

stitution of  learning?  That 
it  really  educates,  that  is,  develops,  its  pupils 
in  Christian  living.  The  mark  is  vital  rather 
than  formal.  It  is  not  primarily  the  inclusion 
of  any  particular  study  in  the  curriculum,  or 
the  maintenance  of  any  particular  form  of 
worhip,  or  of  any  type  of  discipline.  Here, 
as  everywhere  in  education,  the  pupil  himself 
and  what  he  is  becoming  are  the  central  fact 
and  the  decisive  consideration.  Experience 
shows  that  an  institution  that  upholds  reli- 

1  It  is  interesting  to  study  the  prayers  that  are  pub- 
licly offered  for  colleges  and  college  students  by  per- 
sons not  connected  with  colleges.  My  own  observation 
leads  me  to  believe  that  such  prayers  are  commonly 
based  upon  a  false  antithesis  between  study  and  spirit- 
uality which  often  amounts  to  a  belief  that  intellectual 
development  is  per  se  dangerous  to  religious  life. 


CHRISTIAN    ACADEMIES    AND   COLLEGES     329 

gion  in  its  teaching,  its  worship,  and  its  dis- 
cipline, may  yet  thwart  the  aspirations  of  its 
pupils  for  religious  insight,  become  a  nursery 
of  deceit  and  hypocrisy,  or  permit  its  pupils 
to  sink  into  spiritual  sleepiness  and  inactivity. 
In  view  of  the  fundamental  place  of  commun- 
ity life  in  religious  education,  we  may  now 
advance  another  step  by  saying  that  a  Chris- 
tian academy  or  college  is  one  that  maintains 
Christian  community  life.  In  this  respect  it  is 
like  the  Christian  family.  This  community 
life  will  include  the  intercourse  of  students 
with  one  another  and  with  their  instructors. 
It  will  include  social  affairs,  athletics,  and  the 
other  forms  of  student  life  as  well  as  worship, 
and  the  instructional  element  will  come  in  as 
an  integral  part  of  such  a  whole. 

184.  The  Christian         The    special   problem    of 
^'"^"  the  academy  grows  out  of 

the  period  of  life  that  it  touches,  namely, 
middle  adolescence,  with  a  fringe  of  early  and 
of  later  adolescence.  At  this  period  the  prob- 
lem of  discipline  is  peculiarly  pressing.  Im- 
pulses are  abundant,  activity  is  great,  the 
sense  of  independence  grows  acute,  the  feel- 
ings are  tumultuous.  The  attempt  to  govern 
a  body  of  such  students  by  formal  rules,  espi- 
onage, and  artificial  penalties  fails  because  the 


330     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

discipline  is  external  to  the  spontaneous  mo- 
tives and  impulses  of  the  pupils.  It  fails 
because  it  separates  teacher  from  pupil,  and 
so  disrupts  the  community  life.  It  ought  to 
fail  because  it  contradicts  the  Christian  prin- 
ciple of  the  sharing  of  life.  On  the  other 
hand,  discipline  that  grows  out  of  the  real 
sharing  of  life  between  teachers  and  pupils 
not  only  secures  better  order,  but  also  de- 
velops regard  for  others,  fidelity  to  social  in- 
terests, and  the  other  virtues  that  constitute 
the  human  side  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  Where 
the  mechanical  system  of  discipline  prevails 
students  feel  that  instruction  in  religion  is 
formal  and  unreal.  But  where  the  vital  or 
life-sharing  plan  is  in  operation  students 
much  more  easily  find  a  vital  meaning  in  Bible 
study,  worship,  and  all  else  that  concerns 
religion.^ 

185.  Transforma-  The     American     college 

tion    of  the  .    .       .     , 

Religious  College,     originated,      as      everyone 

knows,  as  an  institution  of 
religion,  and  largely  for  the  purpose  of  pre- 
paring men  for  the  Christian  ministry.  But 
great  and  momentous  changes  have  taken 
place  in  the  curriculum,  the  teaching  force, 
the  students,  and  the  spirit  and  aim.    The  stu- 

^  As   to   religious    instruction   appropriate    to   this  age, 
see  Chapter  XV,  and  Chapter  XVII,  §  165  and  166. 


CHRISTIAN   ACADEMIES   AND   COLLEGES     331 

dents  have  grown  heterogeneous ;  they  are  no 
longer  a  chosen  religious  set.  The  teaching 
force  has  changed  in  the  same  direction,  be- 
cause more  and  more  stress  is  placed  upon 
specialised  attainments,  and  less  upon  denom- 
inational or  even  religious  standing.  Com- 
paratively few  professors  are  now  chosen 
from  the  ministerial  rank.  Meantime  the 
range  of  instruction  has  been  narrowed  with 
respect  to  certain  religious  topics,  the  theo- 
logical seminaries  having  taken  over  most  of 
the  Hebrew,  New  Testament  Greek,  and  doc- 
trinal studies,  while  the  enrichment  of  the 
curriculum  in  many  directions  has  reduced  the 
relative  prominence  of  all  studies  in  religion. 
Again,  instruction  has  been  almost  completely 
freed  from  dogmatic  limitations.  The  pro- 
fessor of  history  or  of  geology  is  scarcely  con- 
scious of  a  need  of  conforming  his  teaching 
to  a  standard  that  exists  outside  the  facts  of 
the  subject  itself.  Another  notable  change 
is  in  the  amount  of  student  initiative.  Not 
only  have  studies  become  largely  elective, 
but  religious  activities  have  also  come  to  be 
managed  chiefly  by  the  students  themselves. 
Finally,  the  college  is  coming  closer  to  so- 
called  secular  occupations.  It  is  as  close  to 
law  and  medicine,  and  perhaps  to  commerce, 
as  it  is  to  the  ministry. 


332     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 


The  denominational  college  appears,  in  fact, 
to  be  losing  the  distinctive  marks  which  in 
other  days  set  it  off  from  all  else.  It  seems, 
indeed,  to  be  losing  its  consciousness  of  having 
a  specific  religious  function ;  it  seems  to  be 
thinking  of  itself  chiefly  as  an  institution  for 
education  in  the  so-called  general  sense.  So' 
true  is  this  that  friends  of  religious  education 
have  felt  it  incumbent  upon  them  to  start  an 
agitation  for  the  teaching  of  the  Biljje  in 
Christian  colleges ! 

186.  Its  Official  This     does     not    signify 

Responsibility.  .1,    .    -i,       ^    .        n       t    • 

that  the  state  01  religion  is 

declining  m  these  colleges.  It  did  decline  in 
the  eighteenth  century  until  it  reached  a  low 
point,  but  the  nineteenth  century  saw  a  gen- 
eral upward  movement.  College  sentiment 
and  standards  of  living  improved,  and  the 
proportion  of  church  members  among  students 
greatly  increased.  But  this  revival  has  had, 
in  general,  only  a  loose  relation  to  distinctly 
educational  aims.  It  has  been  added  to  col- 
lege life,  but  it  has  not  become  an  integral 
part  of  college  education.  Neither  in  the  of- 
ficial college  consciousness  nor  in  the  unofficial 
consciousness  of  students  has  education  in  re- 
ligion received  any  such  recognition.  It  is 
true  that  some    subjects    that  bear    directly 


CHRISTIAN   ACADEMIES   AND   COLLEGES     333 

upon  religion  are  included  in  the  curriculum, 
that  daily  worship  is  maintained,  and  that 
Christian  associations  are  encouraged;  it  is 
true  that  the  denominational  college  sincerely 
intends,  in  its  official  capacity,  to  be  religious ; 
it  strives  to  preserve  religion,  to  defend  it,  to 
guard  the  childhood  faith  of  students,  to  win 
the  unconverted.  But  this  is  not  the  same  as 
education  in  religion.  It  does  not  occupy  the 
standpoint  of  religious  development  in  any 
such  way  as  the  college  occupies  the  stand- 
point of  intellectual  development.  In  a  word, 
the  religious  college  has  not,  as  a  general  rule, 
recognised  the  principle  of  the  unity  of  ed- 
ucation. If  it  had  done  so  we  should  find 
larger  provision  for  the  religious  side  of  stu- 
dent development.  How  many  boards  of 
trustees  spend  as  much  money  for  this  pur- 
pose as  for  instruction  in  any  single  depart- 
ment ?  How  many  faculties  or  administrative 
officers  study  this  problem  as  they  study  en- 
trance requirements  or  the  requirements  for 
graduation  ?  We  may  frankly  admit  that  the 
problem  here  presented  involves  extraordi- 
nary practical  difficulties.  It  is  not  solved 
by  adding  a  new  department  of  instruction, 
for  practical  religion  is  not  a  specialty  like 
bacteriology  or  comparative  philology.    Grow- 


S34     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

ing  knowledge  of  religion  is  good,  but  there  is 
demanded  also  some  means  whereby  the  spirit 
of  religious  growth  shall  be  infused  into  the 
whole  community  life  of  the  college. 

187.  The  Idea  of  The  primary  aim  of  the 

Development.  ...  ,, 

religious  college  m  respect 
to  its  students  considered  merely  as  individ- 
uals is,  then,  their  personal  religious  develop- 
ment. The  use  of  religion  is  not  merely  to 
disinfect  college  life.  The  college  is  not  to 
provide  cold  storage  for  preserving  the  reli- 
giousness that  the  student  brings  with  him. 
It  is  not  to  build  a  dike  to  protect  him 
from  the  ocean  tides  of  modern  thought,  even 
though  they  bring  disturbing  conceptions  of 
the  world  and  of  life.  No  static  conception 
of  religion  will  now  suffice;  the  student  must 
go  forward,  becoming  something  that  he  is 
not  already,  or  he  fails  of  religious  education. 
Certainly  the  college  should  help  him  to  lead 
a  true  life  in  the  midst  of  new  temptations 
and  duties ;  it  should  lead  him  to  cherish  more 
tenderly  than  ever  the  religion  that  he  re- 
ceived from  his  parents;  it  should  also  pro- 
vide him  with  reasonable  defences  against 
untruth ;  but  in  and  through  and  underneath 
all  this  as  the  essence  and  moving  force  of  it 


CHRISTIAN   ACADEMIES   AND   COLLEGES     335 

all  is  to  be  the  fact  of  a  growing  life.  A  vig- 
orously growing  life  has  inherent  capacity  for 
expelling  noxious  germs,  for  assimilating 
food,  and  for  eliminating  waste.  What  is 
needed,  then,  is  the  aggressive,  not  the  de- 
fensive, attitude,  and  the  working  of  the  ag- 
gressive spirit  into  the  entire  round  of  college 
relationships. 

Such  growth  will  include  the  coordination 
of  religious  ideas  with  the  other  ideas  with 
which  the  student  is  now  occupied.  In  spirit, 
method,  point  of  view,  and  content,  religious 
training  should  not  be  separated  from  train- 
ing in  history,  literature,  and  the  sciences.  To 
put  a  youth  into  libraries  and  laboratories  for 
five  or  six  days  in  the  week  and  then  into  a 
childish  Bible  class  on  Sunday  is  not  likely 
to  promote  his  religious  development.  To 
teach  him  manliness  and  the  more  rugged  vir- 
tues on  the  athletic  field,  and  then  picture 
Christianity  in  the  form  of  feminine  saintli- 
ness  is  to  lessen  his  respect  for  his  religion. 
Somehow,  the  college  must  discover  to  the  stu- 
dent the  inner  harmony  and  unity  of  the 
class-room,  the  laboratory,  the  athletic  field, 
the  Bible  class,  the  service  of  worship,  and 
one's  private  devotions.  The  chances  are  that 
heretofore  his  instruction  has  been  the  ex- 


336     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

elusive  kind  that  sets  religion  apart  from 
other  vital  interests.  Now  he  must  succeed 
in  finding  that  religion  is  inclusive  of  all  his 
real  interests,  else  he  will  become  indifferent 
to  it  or  permit  it  to  become  a  mere  formality. 

The  idea  of  development  also  includes  the 
discovery  of  a  spring  of  lasting  inspiration. 
One  may  unify  the  scientific  and  the  religious 
points  of  view,  and  adopt  the  inclusive  view 
of  religion,  without  catching  the  fire  of  a 
lasting  religious  zeal.  The  colleges  are  send- 
ing out  too  many  men  who  are  sympathetic 
spectators  of  religion  rather  than  workers 
therein.  It  is  possible  to  find  divine  meaning 
everywhere  in  the  world  without  finding  a 
personal  divine  call  anywhere.  A  college  ex- 
perience that  does  not  culminate  in  a  pro- 
found and  joyous  sense  of  having  a  divine 
mission  in  life  and  a  divine  inspiration  for 
fulfilling  that  mission  is  largely  a  failure. 
There  is  in  the  colleges  a  large  amount  of  neb- 
ulous sentiment  about  progress,  enlighten- 
ment, humanity,  which,  though  it  has  a  sound 
basis  in  truth,  lacks  dynamic  quality.  These 
nebulous  ideas  must  be  brought  to  definition, 
and  the  motive  force  that  properly  belongs 
with  them  must  be  communicated. 


CHRISTIAN   ACADEMIES   AND   COLLEGES     337 


188.  Religious  But    the    individual     is 

Training    of  .,..,, 

Laymen.  ^0^     ^     mere     individual. 

Christianity  is  a  religion 
of  social  relationships,  and  for  these  the 
college  should  specifically  prepare  its  stu- 
dents. Just  as  the  student  who  expects  to 
be  a  physician  is  advised  to  elect  in  col- 
lege such  subjects  as  biology,  bacteriology 
and  chemistry;  just  as  one  who  intends 
to  become  an  engineer  is  directed  to 
mathematics  and  physics,  so  every  student 
should  in  some  way  receive  such  training 
as  wnll  help  him  to  understand  and  to 
practice  the  religious  principles  involved 
in  the  family  life,  church  life,  community, 
national,  and  world  life.  College  studies  are 
coming  into  closer  relationship  to  occupa- 
tion, yet  the  most  constant  and  important 
occupation  of  practically  all  men— the  main- 
tenance of  family  life— is  scarcely  ever  taken 
into  consideration  in  the  colleges.  The 
churches  are  crying  for  Sunday-school  teach- 
ers and  for  leaders  in  many  kinds  of  activity, 
yet  the  colleges,  even  those  founded  and 
supported  by  these  very  churches,  are 
doing  scarcely  anything  that  is  specifically 
directed  toward  supplying  this  need.  The 
case  is  slightly  better  with  respect  to  prepara- 
tion for  the  duties  of  citizenship,  yet  how 


338     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

little  attention  is  given  to  the  religious  and 
Christian  aspect  of  such  duties.  Jesus  came 
preaching  a  kingdom,  a  state  of  society,  and 
that  preaching  has  a  direct  bearing  upon  our 
duties  as  members  of  society  and  of  the  state. 
One  of  the  curses  of  our  social,  economic,  and 
political  condition  is  that  Christians  do  not 
realise  the  essentially  social  and  even  political 
character  of  Christian  living.  They  think 
that  Christianity  is  to  bind  up  the  wounds 
of  those  who  are  injured  by  the  machinery 
of  civilisation,  but  they  have  not  grasped  the 
idea  that  Christianity  contains  and  is  the  or- 
ganising principle  of  civilisation  itself.  Now, 
a  Christian  college  has  no  more  distinctive 
mission  than  to  develop  in  its  students  a  sense 
of  having  a  definite  constructive  Christian 
mission  to  perform  in  family,  in  church,  in 
society,  and  in  the  state.  As  the  old  denom- 
inational college  existed  largely  to  train  men 
for  the  Christian  ministry,  so  the  newer  type 
finds  its  greatest  opportunity  in  the  training 
of  laymen  for  the  true  Christian  ministry  of 
laymen. 

189.  Instruction,  These,  together  with  the 

Worship,  Work.         ^-^^^-^^     ^f    students     who 

are  not  committed  to  Christ,  are  the  essen- 
tially religious  aims  of  the  Christian  college. 


CHRISTIAN   ACADEMIES   AND   COLLEGES     389 

The  means  thereto  include  (a)  Instruction, 
which  should  give  the  student  a  broad  view 
of  the  place  of  religion  in  human  history,  its 
nature  as  a  human  experience,  the  historic 
position  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  the 
content  of  the  Christian  view  of  life;  (6) 
Worship,  which  should  be  at  once  so  dignified 
yet  joyous,  so  simple  yet  beautiful,  so  solemn 
yet  so  near  the  problems  of  students,  as  to 
yield  rich  satisfaction  and  exercise  for  the 
life  of  sentiment  without  divorcing  it  from 
the  practical  life;  and  (c)  Religious  and  phil- 
anthropic work,  which  serves  to  express  the 
student's  religious  aspiration  and  to  prepare 
him  for  further  activities  in  later  life.^ 

Each  of  these  three  suggests  problems  that 
cannot  here  be  so  much  as  touched  upon.  It 
is  essential  to  remark,  however,  that  progress 
in  respect  to  religion  in  the  college  is  not  to 
be  made  by  seeking  to  restore  the  conditions 
that  existed  in  the  colleges  of  an  earlier  gen- 
eration. Liberty  of  election  must  be  accepted 
as  an  established  principle,  and  the  decrease 
rather  than  the  increase  of  required  studies 
as  an  inevitable  tendency.  Required  studies 
in  the  Bible,  or  in  other  topics  recognised  as 

^  To  this  end  teaching  Sunday-school  classes,  doing 
settlement  or  charity-organisation  work,  etc.,  seem  to 
be  desirable.  Some  college  officers,  however,  doubt  the 
feasibility  of  much  work  of  this  sort  for  college  students. 


340     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

having  to  do  with  religion,  are  appropriate 
enough  in  the  secondary  school,  but  in  the 
college  the  mere  fact  that  they  are  required 
works  to  their  prejudice.  They  tend  to  be 
looked  upon  as  formal  impositions  rather  than 
as  privileges.  The  same  is  true  as  to  the 
tendency  of  required  services  of  worship. 
The  problem  of  the  compulsory  chapel  service 
is  not  to  be  settled  by  following  any  abstract 
notions  of  what  ought  to  be,  but  by  consider- 
ing the  actual  effect  upon  the  student  mind 
of  compulsory  as  opposed  to  voluntary 
methods.  Institutions  that  pursue  the  com- 
pulsory plan  should  at  least  enrich  their  serv- 
ices beyond  the  relatively  bare  and  formal  ex- 
ercises that  are  too  common.  Students  may 
be  compelled  to  come,  but  they  cannot  be  com- 
pelled to  respect  such  exercises.  But  when 
the  worship  is  sufHciently  enriched  to  com- 
mand respect,  then,  perhaps,  the  need  of  com- 
pulsion will  grow  small.  Not  immediately, 
perhaps,  but  in  the  end,  we  shall  all  see  that 
when  religion  is  presented  in  worship  and  in 
instruction  in  its  own  beauty  and  majesty 
it  will  accomplish  without  formal  rules  the 
very  thing  that  our  formal  rules  are  now 
accomplishing  so  imperfectly. 


CHRISTIAN    ACADEMIES   AND   COLLEGES     341 

190.  The  Chris-  The    best    provision    yet 

tian  Association  j      t-  i-    •  . 

Movement.  made  lor  religious  work  on 

the  part  of  students  is  that 
of  the  student  Christian  associations.  These 
associations  are  coming  to  stand  for  sym- 
metrical development,  and  so  we  behold  the 
same  men  leading  prayer-meetings  and  fight- 
ing foot-ball  battles.  There  is  here  also  a 
nucleus  for  religious  fellowship,  and  for  a  sort 
of  laboratory  work  in  religion.  In  the  name 
of  Christ,  and  with  no  motive  beyond  that  of 
helpfulness,  new  students  are  welcomed  and 
assisted  through  the  bewilderments  that 
attend  their  new  and  strange  life;  a  student 
labor  bureau  is  conducted;  social  entertain- 
ments are  held;  private  devotion  is  stim- 
ulated ;  Bible  study  is  carried  on ;  religious 
meetings  are  held,  and  personal  w^ork  is  done 
looking  toward  the  conversion  of  students  who 
are  not  Christians.  In  addition,  the  volunteer 
movement  for  foreign  missions  has  brought 
religion  as  a  concrete  fact  and  a  world  force 
close  to  the  student  consciousness  in  many 
colleges.  Several  colleges  or  universities  are 
supporting  a  missionary  on  the  field. 

All  this  is  wholesome,  but  experience  shows 
that  the  association  movement  sometimes  has 
unwholesome   elements.     Not   seldom  a   one- 


342     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

sided,  even  morbid  spirituality  has  been  cul- 
tivated. Often  the  members  of  the  association 
form  a  religious  set  or  clique,  or  are  believed 
to  do  so,  and  thus  the  large  and  human  aspects 
of  Christianity  are  lost  sight  of.  Bible  study, 
in  order  to  be  devotional,  has  often  been  un- 
intelligent, or  at  least  half  intelligent.^  Fur- 
ther, the  conditions  of  membership  now  im- 
posed by  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tions and  the  Young  Women's  Christian  Asso- 
ciations include  a  dogmatic  test  that  excludes 
many  sincere  disciples  of  Christ.  The  test  is 
more  dogmatic  than  that  imposed  by  some  of 
the  evangelical  churches.  Finally,  the  asso- 
ciation movement  in  the  colleges  has  tended 
toward  a  kind  of  centralisation  that  tends  to 
give  undue  influence  to  international  secre- 
taries who  reside  at  a  distance  and  are  not 
members  of  the  college  community. 
191.  The  College  This  brings  us  to  what  is 

Somnfuniiy.'^"  probably  the   central  issue 

of  all,  namely,  the  necessity, 
for  the  sake  of  religious  education,  of  estab- 
lishing distinctively  Christian  community 
life.  The  college  spirit  and  the  Christian 
spirit  should  fuse  and  be  one.  The  college 
must  be  a  religious  community,  not  a  com- 

1  See  Chapter  XXII,  §  216. 


CHRISTIAN    ACADEMIES    AND   COLLEGES     343 

munity  of  some  other  sort  with  a  religious 
appendage;  and  the  religious  spirit  must  be 
self-perpetuating  and  self-governing,  not 
guided  from  without  the  college  itself.  No 
matter  what  is  taught  in  the  lecture  room,  no 
matter  what  religious  services  are  held,  no 
matter  what  organisations  are  maintained, 
unless  religion  does  thus  become  infused  into 
the  spirit  of  the  place,  a  normal  development 
of  the  students  is  not  to  be  expected.  The 
ideal  would  be  an  utterly  pervasive  Christian 
sentiment  in  the  class-room,  on  the  athletic 
field,  in  social  affairs,  in  all  student  enter- 
prises, so  that  the  college  should  be  a  minia- 
ture kingdom  of  God.  Any  practicable  move- 
ment in  this  direction  will  demand  that  the 
older  and  more  experienced  members  of  the 
community,  the  members  of  the  faculty, 
mingle  their  life  freely  with  the  life  of  the 
students.  The  human  being  within  the  official 
must  reveal  himself.  He  must  reveal  himself 
as  sincerely  interested  in  all  that  is  human, 
and  as  finding  the  inner  reality  of  every 
human  interest  in  the  human  religion  of 
Christ.  Such  teachers  can  lead  the  students 
to  abandon  cant  phrases  and  stock  expressions 
in  their  prayer-meetings,  and  to  come  at  the 
religious  aspects  of  college  life  in  as  sincere, 


344     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

unconstrained,  matter-of-fact  a  way  as  they 
now  employ  with  respect  to  athletics  or  other 
student  enterprises.  Such  leadership  can  re- 
move the  prejudice  that  religion  suffers  from 
by  being  regarded  as  a  restraint  upon  the 
buoyant  activities  and  enterprises  of  youth. 
Religion  is,  and  it  can  be  shown  to  be,  the 
central  principle  of  all  that  is  worth  while  in 
college  life.  Thus  at  last  we  discover  that 
religious  education  in  the  college  proceeds  on 
the  very  same  principle,  by  the  very  same 
method  as  in  the  family.  Everywhere  the 
central  need  is  the  incarnation  of  the  spirit  of 
Christ  in  the  group  of  which  one  is  a  member. 

192.  Religion  in  There    is   no   formal  ob- 

University.  stacle  to  realising  nearly  all 

the  elements  of  religious 
education  in  a  state  university.  Here  the 
Christian  association  is  as  free  as  elsewhere; 
here  the  members  of  the  faculty  are  at  liberty 
to  put  as  much  of  themselves  as  they  will  into 
the  community  life;  here,  as  a  general  rule, 
there  is  liberty  to  teach  the  philosophical 
truths  and  the  historical  facts  of  religion  in 
general  and  of  Christianity  in  particular.  In 
various  state  universities,  too,  regular  services 
of  worship  are  officially  held.  Hence  it  has 
come    about    that    some    of    these    universi- 


CHRISTIAN   ACADEMIES    AND   COLLEGES     345 

ties  are  scarcely  distinguishable  in  respect  to 
their  treatment  of  religion  from  denomina- 
tional institutions.  Yet,  since  the  religious 
aim  is  here  not  a  distinctive  one,  there  is 
always  opportunity  for  indifferent  or  hostile 
persons  to  become  members  of  the  governing 
board  or  of  the  faculty,  and  th>s  has  now  and 
then  actually  happened.  In  general,  too,  the 
ecclesiastical  features  of  Christian  history  and 
living  cannot  receive  adequate  treatment.  It 
is  therefore  incumbent  upon  the  Christian 
churches  to  surround  these  institutions  with 
such  church  services,  young  people's  meet- 
ings, guilds,  lectures,  and  pastoral  oversight 
as  are  especially  adapted  to  students.  At  two 
of  the  state  universities,  at  least,^  the  Dis- 
ciples have  established  independent  chairs  of 
Bible  study  which  seem  to  be  meeting  with 
some  success. 

193.  Religious  AVe    hear    a    great    deal 

Preparation   for  r       -    ,  v  •    -i.      i    j 

Entering  College,  about  the  spiritual  dangers 
of  college  life,  but  scarcely 
anyone  stops  to  ask  whether  the  moral 
downfalls,  the  scepticism,  the  religious  in- 
difference that  now  and  then  occur  are  not 
commonly  due  to  lack  of  religious  prepara- 
tion for  entering  college.  We  seem  to  have 
assumed   that   readiness  for  college   consists 

1  Michigan  and  Kansas. 


346     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

simply  in  ability  to  pass  the  entrance  ex- 
aminations. Yet  it  is  possible  to  enter 
college  a  young  man  in  body,  in  intelligence, 
in  intellectual  power,  but  a  mere  boy  in 
moral  and  spiritual  insight  and  in  the  ap- 
plication of  Christian  principle  to  life.  Be- 
fore a  student  enters  college,  where  he  is  to 
be  his  own  master,  he  should  have  some  train- 
ing in  the  uses  of  liberty.  Before  he  encoun- 
ters the  full  force  of  the  scientific  method  as 
applied  to  religion,  he  should  have  learned 
to  come  at  religious  matters  frankly,  nat- 
urally, for  himself,  without  fear  of  trans- 
gressing authority.  Before  he  reaches  the 
point  where  the  hardest  questions  are  asked, 
he  should  be  made  to  understand  that  the 
questioning  attitude  can  coexist  with  religious 
activity  and  with  loyalty  to  Christ.  Need- 
less to  add,  perhaps,  is  the  wisdom  of  causing 
him  to  form  the  habit  of  self-sacrificing  serv- 
ice for  others  before  he  leaves  home  to  live 
among  strangers. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  college  cannot  prop- 
erly ignore  the  spiritual  unripeness  of  the 
incoming  freshman.  In  the  nature  of  the  case 
he  will  have  some  difficulty  in  securing  the 
points  of  view  of  his  professors.  He  must 
grow  to  them.    What  is  already  assimilated  by 


CHRISTIAN   ACADEMIES   AND   COLLEGES     347 

a  senior  may  daze  and  discourage  him.  It  is 
easy  to  create  misunderstandings,  to  awaken 
a  half  thought  where  the  professor  has  a 
whole  one,  to  suggest  a  fallacious  inference 
by  forgetting  that  the  professor's  experience 
has  supplied  a  premise  that  the  freshman 
lacks.  Hence,  while  the  preparatory  school 
should  reach  upward  toward  the  college,  the 
college  should  reach  downward  toward  the 
secondary  school.  This  will  involve  in  some 
cases  special  instruction  for  new  students  and 
in  all  cases  regard  on  the  part  of  the  teacher 
for  the  mental  ripeness  or  unripeness  of  his 
individual  pupils. 


CHAPTER  XX 

STATE  SCHOOLS 

194.  Moral  That  state  schools  should 

Training  in  State  ,  -,        -j-  ^ 

Schools.  make    good    citizens,    and 

that  good  citizenship  de- 
pends upon  good  character,  all  are  agreed.^ 
The  means  employed  for  this  purpose  in  well 
equipped  American  schools  are  these:  (1)  The 
ordinary  studies  which,  when  well  taught,  de- 
velop self-control,  accuracy,  application,  and 
truthfulness.  (2)  Manual  training,  which  de- 
velops a  sense  of  law,  order  and  neatness, 
thoroughness,  patience,  and  faithfulness  to  a 
standard,  pattern,  or  ideal.  (3)  Certain 
studies,  such  as  noble  literature,  biography, 
and  tiistory,  which  directly  develop  ideals  of 
life.  (4)  The  school  organisation,  discipline, 
and  sports,  which  help  to  form  social  virtues. 
The  ideal  school  is  a  miniature  society  in 
which  each  member  learns  by  practice  the 
lesson  of  mutual  dependence  and  the  spirit 
of  co-operation  and  helpfulness.  (5)  The 
personality  of  the  teacher,  and  incidental  in- 
struction as  to  conduct  and  ideals.    Less  com- 

»  See  Chapter  1. 


STATE   SCHOOLS  349 


monly  text-books  in  morals  are  used,  but 
among  teachers  there  is  a  general  sentiment 
aga'Hst  them.  It  is  held  that  virtue  must  be 
Ifarned  by  practice,  and  that  to  teach  about 
it  in  the  abstract  tends  to  give  an  impression 
that  virtue  itself  is  abstract.  It  does  not 
clearly  appear,  however,  why  the  act  and  the 
idea,  the  practice  and  the  formulated  prin- 
ciple, might  not  go  together.  There  is  no  evi- 
dence that  a  consciously  recognised  and  for- 
mulated principle  is  less  needful  in  our  moral 
life  than  in  our  use  of  language  or  of  numbers. 
A  goodly  portion  of  American  teachers  is 
imbued  with  the  idea  that  the  school  is  pri- 
marily and  strictly  an  ethical  institution,  a 
training  place  for  character.  Such  teachers 
and  schools  are  a  true  bulwark  of  our  na- 
tional welfare.  Yet  some  teachers,  and  some 
school  boards,  have  not  yet  risen  to  this  idea 
of  what  a  school  is  for.  Regarding  it  as  an 
institution  for  instruction  in  certain  subjects, 
they  look  upon  its  work  as  done  when  the  pre- 
scribed amount  of  knowledge  or  of  power  has 
been  acquired  by  the  pupils.  Sometimes,  too, 
—especially  in  the  cities— the  emphasis  is 
placed  upon  getting  a  living  rather  than  upon 
attaining  a  life  that  is  worth  living.^    On  the 

'  There  is  no  necessary  opposition  between  the  ethical 
and  the  vocational  views  of  public  education.     For  ethi- 


350     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

whole,  however,  the  ethical  idea  seems  to  be 
gaining  rather  than  losing  influence  ixj  our 
schools. 

195.  state  Schools        As  to  the  relation  of  state 

and  Religion.  i       i      ,  t    •  ,i 

The  Present  schools  to  religion,  there  IS 

Confusion.  confusion    in    both   theory 

and  practice.  The  confu- 
sion is  due  to,  or  expressed  in,  the  fol- 
lowing circumstances:  (1)  We  are  in  the 
midst  of  a  contest  between  the  religious 
and  the  non-religious  or  secularist  view 
of  life's  meaning  and  ideals.  (2)  The 
persons  who  accept  the  religious  view  of  life 
are  divided  into  parties  which  refuse  or  neg- 
lect to  co-operate  with  one  another  in  advanc- 
ing ideals  that  are  common  to  them  all.  The 
danger  that  our  state  schools  shall  become 
nurseries  of  secularism  arises  chiefly  out  of 
this  fact.  (3)  The  attempt  to  apply  the  prin- 
ciple of  separating  the  church  from  the  state 
has  produced  varying  laws  and  court  de- 
cisions in  the  different  states  and  municipali- 
ties, and  the  principle  itself  is  in  a  confused 
condition,   even   in  the   minds   of  educators. 

oal  ideals  are  to  be  realized  in  and  through  the  every- 
day work  and  relations  of  men.  Our  danger  is  not  that 
the  public  school  shall  be  brought  too  close  to  our  in- 
dustrial life,  but  that  it  shall  not  recognize  the  ethical 
aspects  of  that  and  of  all  life.  The  school  should  not 
accept  the  existing  standards  of  industrial  life,  but  try 
to  raise  tbem. 


STATE  SCHOOLS  351 

(4)  There  is  confusion,  or  lack  of  co-ordina- 
tion, in  respect  to  the  general  conception  of 
the  nature  and  means  of  education.  Even  in 
high  places,  education  is  still  identified  with 
instruction,  and  education  in  religion  with  the 
teaching  of  dogma,  while  the  unity  of  edu- 
cation remains  as  yet  a  rather  vague  ideal, 
with  little  power  practically  to  correlate  the 
functions  of  the  family,  the  school,  and  the 
church. 

196.  The  Central  In     all     this     confusion, 

Issue.  . 

however,  the   central   issue 

concerns  the  kind  of  life  that  we  wish  the 
children  to  grow  into.  The  contradiction 
between  the  religious  and  the  secularist  view 
of  life  is  fundamental  and  irreconcilable.  In 
our  schools,  the  function  of  which  is  to  pre- 
pare children  to  live,  the  aim  of  which  is 
identical  with  the  aim  of  life,  we  must  simply 
choose  between  the  two  views.  It  is,  indeed, 
possible,  to  divide  the  labor  of  teaching  be- 
tween the  family,  the  church,  and  the  state, 
and  to  assign  to  each  some  functions  that  are 
not  assumed  by  the  others,  but  the  child  is 
one  and  indivisible.  The  whole  of  him  is 
present  in  the  state  school.  There,  as  well  as 
in  the  church,  he  is  forming  his  notion  and 


352     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 


his  attitude  with  respect  to  the  deepest  prob- 
lems of  life  and  destiny. 

This  happens,  too,  in  spite  of  the  silence  of 
teachers  regarding  such  matters.  Silence  re- 
garding an  issue  is,  in  fact,  often  the  surest 
way  of  throwing  influence  in  favor  of  a  nega- 
tive solution  of  it.  This  is  doubly  true  of 
schools  that  have  the  direction  of  children  five 
or  six  hours  a  day  for  five  days  in  the  week. 
Here,  conscious  of  being  educated  for  life,  the 
child  judges  that  that  which  is  actually 
brought  to  his  attention  includes  what  is  of 
most  importance.  Hence,  to  receive  no  reli- 
gious impression  at  all  is  exactly  equivalent 
to  receiving  an  impression  that  religion  is 
unimportant.^ 

Nor  is  this  the  end  of  the  matter.  For, 
whether  they  will  or  no,  the  personal  attitude 
of  teachers  toward  religion  makes  an  impres- 
sion. Religion  or  irreligion  is  present  in  the 
schools  just  as  surely  as  teachers  are  present. 
The  notion  that  the  state  school  can  be 
strictly  neutral  with  respect  to  the  great  prob- 
lem of  life  and  destiny  is  simply  illusory,  it 
has  no  basis  in  psychology  or  in  the  principles 
of  education.    It  is  incumbent  upon  us,  there- 

1  See  E.  A.  Pace  :  Address  on  "The  Influence  of  Re- 
Ihglous  Education  on  the  Motives  of  Conduct,"  In  Pro- 
ceedings of  the  National  Educational  Association,  1903, 
page  350. 


STATE   SCHOOLS  353 

fore,  to  take  one  side  or  the  other,  either  the 
religious  or  the  secularist,  and  then— not  by 
any  insincerity  or  indirection,  but  frankly — 
let  our  actual  principle  be  incorporated  into 
the  state  school. 

197.  The  Minimal         This  does  not  necessarily 

Demand  of  .        ,      .      ^         ,.        .     , 

Religion.  imply  instruction  m dogma. 

Education  is  not  identical 
with  formal  instruction.  Education  is  a  com- 
prehensive thing;  it  touches  the  whole  man, 
while  instruction  is  primarily  addressed  to 
the  intellect.  In  every  other  branch  of  edu- 
cation this  distinction  is  easily  made,  but  the 
instant  we  begin  to  speak  of  religious 
education,  the  evil  genius  of  our  scholastic 
past  makes  us  forget  everything  but  the  idea 
of  the  formal  teaching  of  dogma.  Nearly 
every  objection  to  religious  education  in  the 
public  schools  rests  upon  this  confusion.  The 
very  same  teachers  who  teach  morals  with- 
out the  use  of  a  text-book  or  of  any  formal 
lessons  assume  that  religion  in  the  public 
schools  means  a  te^t-book  and  formal  instruc- 
tion !  ^     As  well  might  we  assume  that,  be- 

» The  identification  of  education  with  instruction  is 
fundamental  to  the  argument  of  Commissioner  Harris 
against  committing  to  the  public  schools  any  religious 
function.  He  appears  unable  to  conceive  of  any  way  of 
training  in  religion  except  dogmatic  instruction  and 
ceremonial  worship.  He  also  exaggerates  to  the  point  of 
distortion   the    contrast   between    the    scientific   and   the 


S54     EDUCATION    IN   RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

cause  the  Sunday  school  teaches  its  pupils  to 
read  the  Bible,  therefore  it  teaches  them  to 
read.  It  is  just  as  possible  for  the  public 
school  to  build  character  upon  the  religious 
instruction  that  the  child  receives  at  the 
church  as  for  the  Sunday  school  to  utilise  the 
instruction  in  reading  that  the  child  receives 
in  the  public  school.  Without  teaching 
dogmas  that  are  in  dispute  among  the 
churches,  even  without  giving  any  formal 
statement  of  the  broad  truths  upon  which  our 
people  as  a  whole  is  agreed,  the  school  can 
take  a  stand  on  the  issue  between  the  religious 
and  the  irreligious  life.  In  the  regulation  of 
conduct;  in  the  study  of  literature,  biogra- 
phy, history,  and  nature ;  by  incidental  ref- 
erence here  and  there,  especially  as  all  these 
are  reinforced  by  the  teacher's  own  tone  and 
manner  of  life,  it  is  easy  to  make  the  child 
realise  that  the  school  respects  that  which  his 
parents  and  his  church  hold  most  dear.^ 

religious  attitudes  of  mind.  It  is  difficult,  in  fact,  to 
resist  the  conviction  that  his  argument  is  based  upon  a 
square  contradiction  of  the  unity  of  the  child  and  the 
unity  of  education. — W.  T.  Harris :  Address  on  "The 
Separation  of  the  Church  from  the  Tax-Supported 
School"  (Proceedings  of  the  National  Educational  Asso- 
ciation, 1903),  page  351;  also  reprinted  in  the  Educa- 
tional Review,  October,  1903.  A  different  view  of  the 
relation  of  the  scientific  to  the  religious  spirit  will  be 
found  in  George  A.  Coe :  The  Religion  of  a  Mature 
Mind   (Chicago,  1902),  Chapter  II. 

1  The  only  equipment  that  Is  necessary  is  teachers  who 
really  hold  the  religious  view  of  life  and  strive  to  put 


STATE   SCHOOLS  355 

-■■■  — 

Without  at  least  thus  much  religion  in  the 
school,  we  cultivate  a  divided  self  in  the 
pupil.  He  lives  in  several  different  worlds 
between  which  he  experiences  no  unity.  We 
have  heard  not  a  little  recently  about  the  evil 
of  isolating  the  school  from  life.  This  evil  is 
at  its  maximum  when  the  school  fails  to  con- 
nect its  own  work  with  that  which  the  family, 
the  church,  and  our  civilisation  in  general 
hold  of  most  worth.  The  primary  necessity, 
then,  is  that  the  school  should  take  religion 
for  granted.  This  is  being  done  already  in 
schools  from  which  the  laws  exclude  all  reli- 
gious exercises,  and  even  the  reading  of  the 
Bible.  More  than  this  is  possible  in  some 
places  already,  and  w'e  may  hope  that  the 
number  of  such  places  will  increase,  but  this 
is  the  minimal  demand  that  is  consistent  with 
the  unity  of  education. 

198.  Does  this  DoeS     this     minimal     de- 

Involve  Union  of  i         •   i    -  j.   u 

Church  and  mand    Violate    our    estab- 

State?  lished  principle   respecting 

the  relation  of  ecclesiastical 

to  civil  authority  ?    That  principle  forbids  all 

It  Into  practice.  Every  department  and  every  teacher 
should  sound  the  same  note.  The  chief  difficulty  Is  la 
the  selection  of  teachers.  Let  there  be  no  discrimination 
against  Catholic.  Protestant,  or  Jew,  but  rigid  discrim- 
ination against  any  candidate  who  is  not  likely  to  be  a 
positive  spiritual  influence. 


356     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

alliances  with  ecclesiastical  bodies,  all  support 
of  sectarian  religion.  But  it  does  not  require 
the  complete  separation  of  the  state  from  all 
religion.  To  give  this  interpretation  would  be 
both  historically  and  logically  incorrect.  It 
would  be  logically  incorrect  because  it  would 
assume  that  all  the  manifestations  of  religion 
are  necessarily  manifestations  of  sectarian- 
ism. It  would  assume  that  the  man  is  always 
lost  in  the  sectary,  that  the  univei'sal  divine 
life  has  lost  its  unity  in  the  division  of  sects. 
As  Bishop  Spalding  remarks,  there  is  in  each 
of  us  a  fountain  of  religious  impulses,  the 
welling  of  whose  waters  makes  us  human.  ' '  If 
we  are  forbidden,"  he  says,  "to  turn  the 
current  into  this  or  that  channel,  we  are  not 
forbidden  to  recognise  the  universal  truth 
that  man  lives  by  faith,  hope,  and  love,  by 
imagination  and  desire,  and  that  it  is  pre- 
cisely for  this  reason  that  he  is  educable. ' '  ^ 
No  sect  can  possibly  monopolise  the  waters  of 
this  fountain.  They  flow  through  all  the 
churches,  but  also  round  about  them  all. 
Upon  this,  our  common  humanity,  which  is 
religious ;  upon  the  ideals  of  our  people  as  a 
whole,  which  are  surely  religious,  the  state 
has  the  right  and  the  duty  to  build  a  school 

ij.   L.    Spalding:      Means   and   Ends   of  Education,   3d 
edition   ( Chicago,  1901),  page  142. 


STATE   SCHOOLS  357 

that  shall  not  ignore  any  essential  human 
quality  or  any  essential  feature  of  the  ideals 
of  our  people.^ 

199.  The  Next  What,  then,  is  the  next 

Move:    Not  Fault-  .•      i      ^         ,       i        .    i 

Finding.  practical  step   to  be  taken 

in  order  that  our  state 
schools  may  become  in  truth  a  part  of  a 
unified  educational  system  that  embraces  also 
the  family  and  the  church?  Some  persons 
apparently  believe  that  the  next  step  is  de- 
nunciation or  harsh  criticism  of  the  schools. 
Practically  all  the  faults  of  our  people  are 
laid  at  the  door  of  the  public  school.  The 
reasoning  is  this:  Here  is  our  system  of 
education,  and  modern  life  with  all  its  faults 
is  its  product.  Yet  the  public  school  is  only 
one  part  of  our  three-fold  educational  system, 
and  not  the  most  important  part  for  the  train- 
ing of  character.  The  character  of  our  peo- 
ple, moreover,  is  affected  by  economic,  social, 
and  political  conditions  for  which  the  public 

^  This  distinction  is  clearly  made  in  the  celebrated 
Edgerton  case,  in  which  the  Wisconsin  Supreme  Court 
ruled  that  the  reading  of  the  Bible  in  a  public  school  con- 
stitutes sectarian  instruction.  The  court  held  specifi- 
cally that  some  parts  of  the  Bible,  which  are  not  sec- 
tarian, may  be  used  for  the  purpose  of  moral  training, 
and  that  the  schools  may  even  give  instruction  in  re- 
ligious beliefs  that  are  held  in  common  by  all  religious 
sects,  as,  "the  existence  of  a  Supreme  Being,  of  infinite 
wisdom,  power,  and  goodness,  and  that  it  is  the  highest 
duty  of  all  men  to  adore,  obey,  and  love  him."  See  Re- 
port of  the  Commissioner  of  Education,  1888-1889, 
Volume  I,  pages  620-631. 


358     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

school  cannot  by  any  possibility  be  held 
responsible.  It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  we 
are  facing  an  emergency  with  respect  to  the 
training  of  character,  but  the  causes  of  this 
emergency  are  complex,  and  the  burden  of 
the  coming  reform  must  rest  at  least  as  much 
upon  the  churches  and  the  homes  as  upon  the 
public  school.  The  burden  rests  very  largely 
upon  the  very  ecclesiastical  forces  whose  jeal- 
ousy of  one  another  has  tended  to  make  of  the 
public  school  the  very  thing  that  it  is  criti- 
cised for  being.  This  denunciation  is  unjust, 
too,  because  it  ignores  the  great  work  that  the 
schools  are  already  doing  in  the  training  of 
character.  It  is  also  inexpedient,  for  it  tends 
to  alienate  from  the  reform  movement  a  vast 
body  of  earnest,  high-minded  teachers  whose 
co-operation  is  essential  to  the  success  of  the 
movement. 
200.  Not  Restoring        Other    agitators    believe 

the  Bible  to  the  ,,     ,    ,,  ^  i        ij 

Schools.  that  the  next  move  should 

be  to  reinstate  the  reading 
of  the  Bible  in  the  schools  from  which  it  has 
been  excluded.  In  some  states  this  would 
necessitate  an  amendment  to  the  state  consti- 
tution, or  else  a  reversal  of  supreme-court 
decisions.     In  other  states  its  wisdom  as  a 


STATE   SCHOOLS  359 


first  step  may  be  doubted.  For  it  is  not  clear 
that  the  reading  of  certain  words  has  much 
tendency  to  build  up  character  in  the  absence 
of  concrete  conditions  that  illustrate  and  ex- 
press their  meaning.  Further,  in  some  places 
the  effort  to  reinstate  Bible  reading  would 
stir  to  renewed  activity  the  very  jealousies 
and  misunderstandings  that  lie  at  the  basis  of 
our  trouble,  and  so  would  prevent  recognition 
of  even  the  minimal  demand  that  has  been 
outlined.  While  it  is  true  that  the  Bible  fur- 
nishes the  very  best  literary  material  for  the 
training  of  character,  our  first  step  toward 
the  improvement  of  present  conditions  is  not 
so  much  to  choose  between  tools  and  methods 
as  to  create  a  spirit  that  will  demand  the 
best  tools  and  methods.  We  must  make  the 
people  aware  that  the  schools  really  have  a 
moral  and  spiritual  aim  to  realise.  We  must 
also  call  to  the  consciousness  of  the  people  the 
real  spiritual  unity  that  exists  among  us  in 
spite  of  manifold  differences.  In  a  word,  the 
primary  lack  that  is  to  be  supplied  is  not 
means  of  religious  education,  but  a  national 
religious  purpose  in  education.  When  such  a 
purpose  ripens  it  will  probably  reinstate  the 
Bible  where  it  is  now  excluded. 


360     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

201.  Not  Formal  The  same  remarks  apply 
Religion.                  to  the  proposal  to  formu- 
late a  list  of  the  religious 

truths  upon  which  we,  as  a  people,  are  agreed, 
such  as  the  existence  and  goodness  of  God,  his 
control  of  nature  and  history,  our  duty  to  love 
and  obey  him,  and  to  love  our  neighbor  as 
ourself.  Such  a  plan  as  this  implies  might 
work  in  some  places.^  But  in  other  places 
any  attempt  to  introduce  it  would  be  of 
doubtful  value  at  this  stage.  The  community 
must  first  be  quickened  before  such  a  plan 
can  secure  general  adoption.  Further,  it  is 
not  altogether  clear  that  any  such  plan  would 
be  necessary  if  the  various  churches  were  do- 
ing their  proper  share  of  the  educational 
work.  It  is  a  fair  question  whether  the  func- 
tion of  the  state  school  with  respect  to  religion 
will  not  always  be  limited  to  the  simple  and 
practical  application  of  teachings,  the  formal 
part  of  which  the  children  obtain  elsewhere. 

202.  But  Better  What,  then,  should  be  the 

Education   in  ^  ,    . 

Home  and  i^^^t  move  toward  improv- 

Church;  jng    the     relation    of    the 

state    schools    to    religion? 

Without  hesitation  it  may  be  said  that  the 

1  See  J.  W.  Carr :  Address  on  "Religious  and  Moral 
Education  through  the  Public  Schools,"  in  the  Proceed- 
inps  of  the  Religious  Education  Association,  1903,  page 
138. 


STATE  SCHOOLS  361 

next  move  should  be  to  induce  the  family  and 
the  church  consciously  to  assume  their  proper 
share  of  the  responsibility  for  the  character  of 
the  rising  generation.  Let  us  remove  the 
beam  that  is  in  our  own  eyes.  If  I  let  weeds 
go  to  seed  in  my  dooryard,  they  spread  to  my 
neighbor's  dooryard;  but  if  I  make  my  door- 
yard  beautiful  with  floAvers,  I  make  it  easier 
for  my  neighbor  to  beautify  his  own  premises. 
As  soon  as  the  family  and  the  church  are  suf- 
ficiently aroused  to  begin  to  do  their  own 
duty,  the  public-school  question  will  grow 
wondrously  simple.  Strong  purpose  is  con- 
tagious, and  it  has  a  remarkable  way  of  find- 
ing methods.  Our  trouble  is  that  we  have  not 
yet  reached  the  point  of  giving  ourselves  to 
this  reform.  We  are  giving,  instead,  advice 
and  criticism  to  the  public  schools,  and  in 
various  ways  we  are  hoping  that  organisa- 
tions, methods,  and  schemes  will  do  what  only 
personal  consecration  can  accomplish.  We 
neglect  the  children  in  our  homes;  we  do 
shilly-shally  work  in  the  Sunday  school,  and 
then  shift  to  the  state  school  the  blame  for  the 
results!  It  is  well,  to  be  sure,  to  adopt  at 
once  every  feasible  means  for  improving  the 
state  school,  but— depend  upon  it— any  large 
and  thorough  improvement  therein  will  wait 


362     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

■until,  through  striving  to  build,  each  over 
against  his  own  house,  the  churches  and  the 
homes  have  developed  a  proper  educational 
consciousness  among  the  people, 

203.  And  Closer  Then  will  come  a  sense  of 

Acquaintance  „  „         ,  .  ,  . .         , 

between  all  Three.    lellowship      m      educational 

aims,  and  a  desire  for  closer 
acquaintance  between  the  home,  the  church, 
and  the  school.  Any  movement  that  will  ac- 
complish what  the  National  Congress  of 
Mothers  and  similar  organisations  are  aiming 
at,  namely,  close  understanding  and  co-opera- 
tion between  parents  and  teachers,  will  do 
more  to  tone  up  the  public  school  than  any 
kind  of  mechanical  or  legal  reform.  A 
teacher  w^ho  feels  the  heart-beat  of  a  parent 
who  is  in  earnest  with  respect  to  the  religious 
life  of  his  child  cannot  be  indifferent  to  the 
religious  influence  of  the  school  upon  that 
child.  Our  purposes  are  in  confusion  largely 
because  we  isolate  ourselves  from  one  an- 
other's deeper  life.  Mingle  together  public- 
school  teachers,  parents,  Sunday-school 
teachers,  pastors.  Catholics,  Protestants  of  all 
kinds,  Jews,  even  secularists— bring  them  all 
close  enough  together— and  there  will  emerge 
a  sense  of  unity  in  moral  and  spiritual  pur- 


STATE   SCHOOLS  363 

pose  that  will  be  adequate  to  all  our  trouble- 
some problems. 
204.  The  Qut    of    such    unity    of 

Parochial  School  •    •-      -i  i  i  ^ 

Question.  spirit    there    would    surely 

spring  in  time  a  solution  of 
the  problem  of  the  relation  of  the  Catholic 
parish  school  to  the  state  school.  A  solution 
of  this  problem  must  be  found  because  of  the 
tendency  of  a  divided  school  system  to  divide 
our  national  consciousness.  It  must  be  found, 
also,  for  the  simple  reason  that  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  our  citizens  feel  themselves  ag- 
grieved by  what  they  regard  as  the  injustice 
of  being  obliged  to  pay  taxes  for  the  support 
of  schools  to  which,  for  reasons  of  religion 
and  conscience,  they  cannot  send  their  chil- 
dren. It  is  scarcely  conceivable  that  these 
citizens  bear  the  burden  of  supporting  a 
second  school  system  out  of  motives  so 
peculiar  or  unreasonable  that  the  state  may 
properly  ignore  them.  There  is  here  a  touch 
of  the  heroic,  and  it  is  not  to  be  explained  by 
any  superficial  impulse.  The  Catholic  view 
has  consistently  maintained  the  central  prin- 
ciple, or  major  premise,  of  all  religious  educa- 
tion, namely,  that  the  whole  child  should  be 
educated.  With  the  Catholic  minor  premise, 
which  concerns  the  means  of  securing  such 


864     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

complete  education,  we  may  differ,  but  on  the 
major  premise  Catholics  and  Protestants 
ought  to  be  so  far  agreed  as  to  recognise 
each  other  as  fellow  workers  in  a  common 
cause.  Here  Catholics  and  Protestants  arc 
really  at  one  against  the  secularist  view  of 
education;  here  they  have  a  common  interest 
in  protecting  the  public  schools  from  secular- 
ist encroachments. 

Our  immediate  need  is  to  secure  a  neigh- 
borly and  national  religious  consciousness 
with  respect  to  the  essential  aims  of  education. 
When  it  is  attained  it  will  find  means  for 
making  itself  effective.  It  will  certainly  not 
surrender  the  principle  of  common  schools  for 
the  whole  people,  for  the  association  of  differ- 
ent classes  in  the  public  school  forms  the  most 
certain  bond  of  unity  in  a  democratic  state. 
Nor  will  a  national  religious  consciousness 
with  respect  to  education  tend  to  violate  the 
principle  of  separation  between  church  and 
state.  Indeed,  the  Catholic  Church  thrives  so 
much  better  where  it  is  free  from  political 
entanglements  that  its  American  adherents 
are  reaching  agreement  with  the  Protestants 
as  to  the  proper  relation  between  the  eccle- 
siastical and  the  civil  power.^ 

i  "In  the  ever-widening  domain  of  the  British  Empire, 
in  the  ever-growing  territory  of  the  American  Republic, 


STATE   SCHOOLS  363 

If  we  are  to  have  common  schools  for  the 
whole  people,  complete  separation  of  church 
and  state,  and  yet  thorough  religious  educa- 
tion for  Catholic  and  Protestant  children 
alike,  it  follows  that  the  religious  function  of 
the  state  schools  should  be  permanently  re- 
stricted to  friendly  recognition  of  the  teach- 
ing function  of  the  family  and  of  the  church, 
and  sympathetic  co-operation  with  them  by 
assuming  as  true  and  good  whatever  is  com- 
mon to  the  various  religious  communions. 
But  this  implies  that  these  communions  volun- 
tarily furnish,  at  their  own  expense,  definite 
and  systematic  religious  training  for  their 
children  and  for  all  children  who  can  be 
reached. 

democracy  is  triumphant ;  and  in  all  these  vast  regions, 
with  the  exception  of  the  Anglican  Establishment,  which 
is  an  anomaly,  confined  to  li^ngland,  there  is  a  separa- 
tion of  church  and  state,  a  separation  which  those  who 
are  competent  to  judge  recognise  as  permanent.  There 
is  everywhere  freedom  to  write,  to  publish,  to  discuss, 
to  organise  :  and  there  is  no  subject  of  thought,  no  sphere 
of  action,  no  interest  which  it  is  possible  to  fence  about 
and  shut  in  from  the  all-searching  breath  of  liberty. 
This  condition  of  things  exists ;  every  influence  main- 
tains and  strengthens  it :  so  far  as  we  are  able  to  see, 
it  does  not  appear  that  any  earthly  power  can  change  or 
destroy  it.  It  is  a  state  of  things  English-speaking 
Catholics  accept  without  mental  reservations,  without 
misgivings,  without  regrets,  which  are  always  idle ;  and 
the  common  rights  which  are  ours  in  the  midst  of  a 
general  freedom  have  stirred  in  ue  an  energy  of  thought 
and  action  which  have  led  to  triumphs  and  conquests 
that  have  not  been  achieved  by  Catholics  elsewhere  in 
the  wonderful  century  that  is  now  closing." — Rt.  Rev. 
.T.  L.  Spalding  :  Education  and  the  Future  of  Religion  : 
A  Sermon  Preached  in  Rome,  March  21,  1900  (The  Ave 
Maria,  Notre  Dame,  Indiana). 


366     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

As  far  as  organisation  is  concerned,  the  ker- 
nel of  the  difficulty  lies  in  the  necessity  of  ad- 
justing public  functions  and  private  func- 
tions to  each  other  so  as  to  make  a  system  of 
the  whole.  To  appropriate  public  funds  for 
education  not  under  the  specific  direction  of 
the  state  would  aggravate  rather  than  allevi- 
ate the  present  situation,  besides  involving  an 
obvious  encroachment  upon  the  established  re- 
lation of  church  and  state.  Again,  for  the 
state  to  pay  for  the  use  of  a  parish-school 
building  certain  hours  in  the  day,  leaving  its 
owners  free  to  employ  it  for  the  remainder  of 
the  day  for  religious  instruction  by  a  single 
sect  to  the  exclusion  of  all  others  would  con- 
stitute practical  favoritism  to  a  particular 
sect.  It  would  take  the  pupils  of  the  state 
into  a  situation  in  which,  by  official  act,  the 
opportunities  of  the  different  sects  to  influ- 
ence them  are  unequal.  But  the  state  school 
may  properly  adjust  its  hours  so  as  to  provide 
time  for  specific  religious  training  by  all  the 
sects.  The  state  might  also  permit  the  use  of 
public-school  rooms  by  the  different  religious 
bodies,  either  with  or  without  compensation, 
for  the  purpose  of  religious  education,  pro- 
vided that  the  same  opportunities  are  ex- 
tended to  all.     In  any  case,  the  only  practica- 


STATE   SCHOOLS  367 

ble  solution  of  the  problem  is  this :  A  public 
school  for  all  children,  having  its  setting,  in 
one  way  or  another,  in  a  group  of  schools  or 
their  equivalent  maintained  by  the  churches 
for  the  purpose  of  specific  religious  education, 
the  whole  being  inspired  by  a  set  of  common 
ideals,  a  recognition  of  a  common  view  of  life, 
but  each  church  school  being  controlled  by 
further  ideals  that  are  peculiar  to  the  sect 
that  supports  it.^ 

The  effect  of  such  an  arrangement  would  be 
threefold,  and  all  for  the  good.  (1)  The  en- 
tire body  of  children  in  attendance  upon  the 
state  school  would  recognise  religion  as  a  real 
and  serious  interest,  and  religious  training 
and  instruction  as  included  in  education. 
(2)  The  present  movement  among  Catholics  for 
improvement  in  the  methods  of  Catholic  edu- 
cation would  receive  wholesome  impetus.  This 
movement,  which  is  parallel  to  what  is  going 
on  among  Protestants,  calls  upon  the  church 
schools  to  avail  themselves  of  the  principles 

1  For  various  propositions  put  forth  by  Catholic  writ- 
ers, see  Archbishop  Ireland's  address  on  "State  Schools 
and  Parish  Schools,"  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  National 
Educational  Association,  1890,  page  119  :  also  the  pam- 
phlet (price,  five  cents)  entitled,  "Catholic  Citizens  and 
Public  Education"  (Catholic  Book  Exchange,  120  West 
60th  Street,  New  York).  What  the  difEerent  states 
actually  do  with  respect  to  parish  schools  is  shown  in 
the  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education,  1888-89, 
Volume  I.  page  429.  The  relation  of  state  universities 
to  religion  is  touched  upon  in  the  present  work,  Chapter 
XIX.  §  192. 


368     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

of  modern  education  by  making  instruction 
less  formal,  less  memoriter,  more  free  and 
self-expressive,  more  appreciative  of  freedom 
of  thought  and  modern  learning.^  These  ends 
would  be  well  conserved  by  closer  contact 
with  the  modern  educational  world,  from 
which  the  parish  school  is  now  relatively  iso- 
lated. (3)  Protestants  would  be  stimulated 
to  throw  off  their  shameful  lethargy  with  re- 
spect to  education  in  religion.  They  would 
learn  from  their  Catholic  fellow  workers 
something  of  the  persistent  devotion  to  a  cen- 
tral educational  principle  to  Avhich  the  parish 
school  bears  witness.  Under  the  influence  of 
public-school  methods  Protestant  teaching 
would  also  secure  definite  organisation  and 
method  where  they  are  now  sorely  needed. 

Would  the  element  of  competition  that 
would  be  involved  in  bringing  the  educational 
work  of  different  churches  into  this  close  con- 

*  "There  is  a  large  consensus  of  opinion  on  two  im- 
portant facts — the  diflaculty,  irksomeness,  and  generally 
unsatisfactory  character  of  our  catechetical  systems,  and 
the  enormous  losses  from  the  ranks  of  those  who  have 
gone  through  that  training No  merely  ex- 
trinsic causes  would,  I  think,  be  able  to  neutralize  so 
largely  the  efforts  of  Christian  education  unless  there 
were  some  vital  deficiency  in  the  system  itself." — Rt. 
Rev.  .Tames  Bellord  :  Religious  Education  and  its  Fail- 
ures (The  Ave  Maria,  Notre  Dame,  Indiana,  1901),  page 
17.  See.  also.  Rt.  Rev.  J.  L.  Spalding :  Education  and 
the  Future  of  Religion  (The  Ave  Maria,  Notre  Dame, 
Indiana)  :  likewise  L.  Laberthonniere :  The  Ideal 
Teacher,  or  the  Catholic  Notion  of  Authority  in  Educa- 
tion (New  York :  The  Cathedral  Library  Associatlou, 
1902). 


I 


STATE   SCHOOLS  369 

tact  tend  to  the  disadvantage  of  any  of  the 
churches  ?  If  it  would,  we  may  be  reasonably 
hopeful  that  the  spiritually  fittest  would  sur- 
vive. Protestants  of  various  creeds  would  be 
forced  to  unite  in  educational  work,  and  then 
Catholic  education  and  Protestant  education 
would  each  work  out  its  own  inner  principle 
to  its  legitimate  conclusion.  Religion  could 
scarcely  fail  to  be  the  gainer  thereby. 


PART  IV 
THE  PERSPECTIVE 


CHAPTER  XXI 

THE   CHURCH  AND  THE  CHILD— A  GLANCE   BACK- 
WARD 

205.  How  Can  the         w^  jiave  seen  that  educa- 

Church  Keep  in  ,.         .  ■,        ■      ^ 

Touch  with  tion  IS  110  mechanical  pro- 

Childhood?  cess  whereby  a  plastic  child 

is  molded  upon  fixed,  un- 
yielding forms,  but  that  it  is  a  vital  and  per- 
sonal process  in  which  the  teacher  must  be 
plastic  as  well  as  the  child.  This  is  just  as 
true  of  the  church  as  educator  as  it  is  of  the 
individual  teacher.  To  keep  in  truly  educa- 
tional touch  with  humanity,  the  church  must 
be  greatly  different  from  any  rigid,  completed 
thing,  which  merely  imposes  itself  upon  grow- 
ing life.  It  must  look  to  something  more  than 
mere  "method."  The  possibilities  of  the 
church  as  educator  depend  upon  her  inmost 
relation  to  the  basal  forces  of  human  life.  Is 
the  church's  lifp  inclusive  of  life?  Is  she 
herself  a  realisation  of  the  vital  forces  of  a 
growing  soul,  or  is  she  abstract,  removed  from 
life,  incapable  of  the  plasticity  that  is  de- 
manded of  every  teacher?  In  a  word,  the 
church's  relation  to  education  is  inseparable 


374     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

from  her  relation  to  life  in  the  largest  sense, 

206.  The  Child  in  This  truth  is  well  illus- 
Church.                     trated    in    the    remarkable 

educational  work  of  the 
Jewish  church.  Here  education  blended  into 
one  with  the  national  and  the  family  life. 
The  ethnic  sense,  the  family  sense,  and  the 
religious  sense  were  inseparable,  and  the 
child  knew  no  life  apart  therefrom.  As  soon 
as  he  was  old  enough  to  ask  questions  about 
the  meaning  of  family  religious  observances, 
the  parents  told  him — not  a  creed,  but — a 
story.  It  was  a  story,  too,  in  which  he  had  a 
part,  for  it  told  about  his  ancestors  and  their 
deeds,  and  about  his  very  own  land  and  home 
and  the  things  that  he  could  see  with  his  own 
eyes.  Through  it  he  learned  of  a  covenant 
existing  between  himself  and  God,  and  how 
certain  privileges,  rights  and  duties  came  to 
him  with  the  very  blood  that  flowed  within  his 
arteries.  Here  was  true  religious  education, 
even  in  the  most  modern  sense,  for  it  was  life 
propagating  itself  directly  and  concretely. 

207.  The  Child  in         We    have    already    seen 
ChHsttan^ Church.     (Chapter    IV)    that    Jesus 

provides  for  Christian  edu- 
cation the  same  kind  of  foundation,  for  he 
recognises  the  child  as  already  living  within 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  CHILD  375 

the  kingdom  of  God.  The  position  of  the 
child  in  the  early  Christian  church  must  have 
been  very  like  that  of  the  Jewish  child  in  the 
Jewish  church.  For  the  Christians,  too,  were 
a  people  apart,  and  they  were  compacted  to- 
gether by  pressure  from  without.  As  a  con- 
sequence, each  Christian  family,  parents  and 
children  alike,  must  have  identified  itself  with 
the  religion  of  Christ.  The  entire  life  of  the 
child  was  within  the  atmosphere  of  Christian- 
ity. He  could  not  help  being  conscious  of  the 
vital  power  of  Christ  in  the  everyday  conduct 
of  the  family  and  of  the  Christian  community. 
He  was  in  constant  contact  with  those  who 
were  talking  about  Christ,  working  for  him, 
suffering  for  him,  and  with  them  he  was 
sharply  set  off  from  the  heathen  w-orld.  Thus 
life  itself  was  a  school  of  religion.  Life,  re- 
ligion, and  education  were  all  one.^ 
208.  How  the  But  these  conditions  did 

away  from  IlOt    last.         The    SUCCesS    of 

Childhood.  Christianity  in  its  struggle 

Ecclesiasticism  -.i      i       ^i        •  j         j 

and  Dogma.  With   heathenism  producea 

as  profound  a  change  in  the 

status  of  the  child  as  it  did  in  that  of  adults. 

The  Jewish  church  was  kept  close  to  the  child 

^  Bulwer-Lytton's  Last  Days  of  Pompeii  gives  a  pretty 
picture  of  the  attitude  of  ttie  early  Christians  toward 
their  children.     See  Book  III,  Chapter  III. 


376     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

by  the  fact  of  blood;  the  early  Christian 
church  by  the  pressure  of  environment  as 
well  as  by  the  enthusiasm  of  the  new  faith. 
In  both  cases  religion  was  a  life  in  which  the 
child  shared  from  the  start.  But  Christian- 
ity as  a  universal  religion  had  to  forego  all 
the  educational  power  of  the  tribal  and  na- 
tional sense,  and  as  a  conquering  religion  it 
lost  the  cohesive  influence  of  persecution. 
Furthermore,  its  transformation  into  ecclesi- 
asticism  and  into  dogma  wrought  radical 
changes  in  the  conditions  of  Christian  educa- 
tion. For  it  withdrew  the  church  from  the 
child.  The  practical  effect  of  ecclesiasticism 
is  that  spiritual  life  ceases  to  be  a  homespun, 
everyday  matter;  it  is  something  centered 
yonder  in  the  church  or  the  priest.  Perhaps 
it  is  not  necessarily  true  that  the  more  we 
have  of  the  priest  the  less  we  have  of  the 
home,  yet  this  is  a  real  danger  of  ecclesias- 
ticism. There  comes  in  a  sharp  separation 
between  the  sacred  and  the  secular,  and  Christ 
is  supposed  to  speak  through  the  lips  of  a 
particular  set  of  men,  in  particular  places,  at 
particular  times.  The  church  no  longer  lives 
by  the  side  of  the  child ;  but  the  child  has  to 
go  to  the  church. 

The  identification  of  Christianity  with  dog- 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  CHILD  377 


ma  worked  in  the  same  direction.  For  the 
dogmas  that  became  the  test  of  Christian 
standing  are  far  removed  from  the  sponta- 
neous interests  of  children.  A  dogmatic  reli- 
gion is  essentially  a  religion  for  adults  only. 
It  cannot  attach  childhood  and  youth  to  itself 
in  any  except  an  external  way.  It  makes 
them  mere  candidates  for  religion,  and  if  it 
strives  to  educate  them,  it  comes  to  them  as 
instruction  externally  imposed. 

From  the  standpoint  of  religious  education, 
then,  the  hardening  of  Christianity  into  a 
dogmatic  and  ecclesiastical  system  cannot  be 
regarded  otherwise  than  as  a  backward  step. 
Or,  if  it  be  thought  that  this  hardening  pro- 
cess was,  after  all,  an  essential  preliminary  to 
securing  control  of  a  disorganised  and  largely 
barbaric  world,  it  still  remains  true  that  child- 
hood paid  a  fearful  price  therefor.  No  doubt 
scholastic  education  performed  a  real  service 
in  the  training  of  the  people.  Yet  it  was  fa- 
tally infected  with  these  faults:  Instead  of 
seeking  to  develop  the  individual  from  within 
through  free  self-expression,  it  presented  a 
rigid,  authoritative  system  to  which  he  was 
required  to  conform;  it  put  undue  emphasis 
upon  the  intellectual  apprehension  of  dogma ; 
inasmuch  as  the  dogma  was  taught  before  the 


378     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 


child  could  assimilate  it,  undue  emphasis  was 
placed  upon  the  memory  as  distinguished 
from  the  understanding;  as  a  consequence, 
symbol  was  elevated  above  reality  and  experi- 
ence, the  form  above  the  content,  grammar 
above  literature,  logic  above  truth,  theory 
above  observation.  In  a  word,  the  church 
had  grown  away  from  the  child. 

209.  Influence  of  This     general     difficulty 

Augustinianism.  £      .-i,  ^.      4.   a 

became  further  accentuated 
by  the  specific  content  of  Christian  dogma, 
particularly  as  regards  its  conception  of  sal- 
vation. This  we  may  call,  after  the  name  of 
its  greatest  representative,  Augustinianism. 
It  approached  humanity,  childhood  included, 
through  a  theory  of  sin,  penalty,  and  judicial 
procedure.  Life  was  not  a  nursery  of  the 
spirit,  but  a  judicial  trial.  The  young,  as 
well  as  the  old,  were  thought  of  under  two 
rigid  categories,  the  saved  and  the  unsaved, 
the  elect  and  the  non-elect.  These  categories 
furnish  no  basis  for  religious  education.  They 
hold  us  to  a  rigid  "either-or",  which  leaves 
no  space  for  "becoming"  or  development. 
They  hinge  everything  upon  what  is  done  for 
the  soul,  and  nothing  upon  its  inner  develop- 
ment.    The  full  significance  of  this  fact  will 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  CHILD  379 

appear  when  we  realise  that  Augustinianism 
permeated  the  whole  church,  Roman,  Luth- 
eran, Anglican,  Calvinistic,  even  Arminian. 
In  every  one  of  the  churches  a  central  thought 
has  been  that  the  individual  belongs  within 
one  of  the  two  classes,  the  saved  and  the  un- 
saved. Everywhere  the  third  alternative,  a 
spiritual  life  in  process  of  becoming,  has  been 
neglected.^ 

It  was  thus  that  the  Puritan  attitude  to- 
ward children  became  a  by-word  and  a  warn- 
ing. It  was  so  filled  with  Augustinianism 
that  it  had  no  gospel  for  childhood.  The 
parent  stood  still  in  fear  and  trembling,  won- 
dering whether  his  child  was  elected  to  life  or 
to  death,  whether  he  would  ever  be  converted 
or  not.  Puritanism  fixed  its  eyes  so  stead- 
fastly upon  the  ideas  of  sin,  redemption,  de- 
crees, conversion,  that  it  could  not  see  chil- 
dren as  children,  or  grasp  the  notion  of  devel- 
opment. Horace  E.  Scudder  says:  "The  tend- 
ency of  the  system  was  to  ignore  childhood, 
to  get  rid  of  it  as  soon  as  possible.  .  .  . 
There  was,  unwittingly,  a  reversal  of  the  di- 
vine message,  and  it  was  said  in  effect  to  chil- 
dren, 'Except  ye  become  as  grown  men  and 

*  But  sec  Chapter  IV,  Appendix. 


380     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

be  converted,  ye  cannot  enter  the  kingdom  of 
heaven.'  "^ 

210.  The  It  is  clear  that  the  Refor- 

Reformation  and  ,.  ,.,         ,     i     •  ,, 

the  Child.  mation   did   not  bring   the 

church  back  to  childhood. 
Yet  herein  lies  a  paradox.  For  the  inner 
principle  of  the  Reformation — direct  access 
of  the  soul  to  truth  and  to  God— is  in  the 
highest  degree  favorable  to  education.  A  soul 
so  endowed  demands  development.  Here  is 
the  kind  of  individualism  that  does,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  underlie  our  modern  universal  ed- 
ucation. Luther  himself  demanded  universal 
education ;  he  would  even  make  it  com- 
pulsory; and  he  favored  special  provision 
for  the  education  of  the  laboring  classes.  Un- 
der the  impulse  of  Protestantism,  Comenius 
sought  to  discover  the  natural  order  of  growth 
of  the  mind,  and  to  organise  education  accord- 
ingly. Davidson  says  that  "all  modern  edu- 
cation has  been  built  up  upon  the  foundation 
which  he  laid."-  Nevertheless,  modern  edu- 
cation, in  order  to  come  to  its  own,  has  had  to 
free  itself  from  Protestantism  as  well  as  Ca- 
tholicism.   Moreover,  the  Protestant  churches, 

»  Childhood  in  Literature  and  Art.  page  128,  as  quoted 
in  Hunger's  Life  of  Bushnell,  page  66. 

2  Thomas  Davidson  :  History  of  Education  (New 
York,  1901),   page  193. 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  CHILD  381 

though  they  cherish  in  their  bosoms  an  edu- 
cational principle  of  the  first  class,  have  failed 
to  apply  it  thoroughly  in  their  own  specific 
task  of  religious  education.  There  is  a  sense 
in  which  the  schools  of  to-day  are  more  Prot- 
estant than  the  Protestant  churches  them- 
selves. 

The  explanation  is  that  the  Reformation 
came  only  very,  very  gradually  to  a  recogni- 
tion of  the  meaning  of  its  own  principle.  It 
would  emancipate  the  soul  from  dogmatism, 
external  authority,  and  ecclesiasticism,  yet  it 
set  up  a  new  dogmatism,  a  new  infallibility,  a 
new  ecclesiasticism,  and  it  snared  itself  in 
new  political  entaglements.  It  stood  for  nat- 
ural education,  yet  the  village  schools  of  the 
period,  Munroe  says,  "became  battle-grounds 
of  dogma.  "^  The  defects  in  the  religious  ed- 
ucation of  to-day  are  due  largely  to  our  only 
partial  trust  in  the  true  Reformation  princi- 
ple. We  have  said  that  the  soul  can  come 
directly  to  truth,  to  life,  to  God,  but  we  do  not 
give  it  the  freedom,  the  stimulus  to  self- 
expression,  the  concrete  as  distinguished  from 
the  dogmatic  material,  through  which  alone  it 
can  fully  realise  its  capacity  for  divine  fel- 
lowship and  co-operation. 

^  J.    p.     Munroe:       The     Educational     Ideal     (Boston, 
1896),  page  50. 


382     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

211.  Influence  of  The  Wesleyan  revival  was 

Revival.  another  outburst    of    fresh 

life,  and  for  that  reason  it 
contained  a  germ  of  the  profoundest  educa- 
tional truth.  It  invited  spontaneity,  individ- 
ual access  to  God,  and  it  was  not  over-solici- 
tous about  dogma.  It  turned  attention  not 
so  much  to  what  goes  on  in  the  mind  of  God 
as  to  Avhat  goes  on  in  our  own  minds ;  not  so 
much  to  what  is  done  for  us  as  to  what  occurs 
in  us  and  through  us.  It  elevated  the  soul 
and  its  experiences  to  a  dominant  place  in 
Christian  thinking.  To  this  extent  Wesleyan- 
ism  and  the  evangelical  revival  in  general 
moved  toward  a  standpoint  from  which  a  phi- 
losophy of  religious  education  might  easily 
have  been  discovered.  All  that  was  necessary 
was  to  widen  the  notion  of  religious  experi- 
ence so  as  to  take  in  the  whole  developing  life 
of  the  child  as  well  as  the  peculiar  experi- 
ences of  adults.  The  conception  of  religion 
as  experience  is,  in  fact,  entirely  capable  of 
embracing  all  stages  of  life.  But  the  stress 
was  laid  on  certain  special  experiences  of 
adults,  and  the  wide  range  of  the  operations 
of  the  Divine  Spirit  in  the  soul  of  man  was 
forgotten.  Sudden  and  dramatic  conversions 
became  the  goal  of  the  churches,  and  round 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  CHILD  383 

about  these  gathered  at  last  the  vast  para- 
phernalia of  modern  evangelism.  Thus,  once 
more,  a  really  vital  movement  in  religion,  be- 
cause it  failed  to  work  its  own  inner  princi- 
ple, sacrificed  an  opportunity  to  become  a 
first-class  educational  force.^ 

212.  Bushnell's  Horace     Bushnell,     that 

true  prophet  of  the  soul, 
demonstrated  the  greatness  of  his  mind  no- 
where more  clearly  than  in  his  independent 
discovery  of  the  true  principles  of  religious 
education.  Apparently  without  being  ac- 
quainted with  the  work  of  Froebel,  he 
wrought  out  for  himself  the  essential  doc- 
trines of  modern  education,  and  he  applied 
them  to  the  problems  of  religious  nurture  with 
a  degree  of  firmness  and  insight  that  makes 
him  one  of  our  most  notable  educational  au- 
thorities. He  escaped  the  mechanical  "either- 
or"  of  Augustinianism  by  laying  hold  upon 
the  notion  of  development.  He  escaped  the 
intellectualism  that  Protestantism  inherited 
from  scholasticism  by  seeing  clearly  that 
Christian  life  and  character  can  come  other- 
wise than  through  deliberate  volition  conse- 

*  It  is  only  fair  to  say.  however,  that  the  theology,  as 
distinguished  from  the  practice,  of  the  Wesleyan  churches 
provides  a  practical  basis  for  religious  education.  See 
Chapter  IV,  Appendix. 


384     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

(juent  upon  the  acceptance  of  a  dogma.  He 
saw  the  psj^chological  falsity  of  the  notion  of 
an  "age  of  discretion,"  at  which  a  child,  here- 
tofore irresponsible,  suddenly  assumes  the 
burden  of  his  own  destiny.  He  broke  through 
the  false  individualism  that  isolated  the 
child's  moral  and  spiritual  life  from  his  en- 
vironment, and,  with  extraordinary  insight, 
he  demonstrated  the  organic  unity  of  the  fam- 
ily. The  principles  of  development,  assimila- 
tion, self-expression,  freedom,  concreteness — 
all  these  were  present  in  Bushnell's  mind, 
though  he  did  not  completely  formulate  them 
all.  In  a  word,  the  very  principles  for  which 
we  are  now  struggling  to  secure  recognition 
were  discovered  by  Bushnell  and  applied  to 
our  problems  as  early  as  1847. 

Why,  then,  did  his  reform  meet  with  such 
scanty  success  ?  Why  has  it  been  necessary  to 
wait  a  whole  half  century  for  the  recognition, 
not  to  say  fruition,  of  his  prophetic  insight? 
Partly  because  the  old  dogmatic  conceptions 
of  religious  life  were  still  too  strong;  partly 
because  evangelism  was  over-valued.  The  re- 
vival was,  indeed,  the  one  point  at  which  the 
current  theology  provided  for  spontaneity 
and  freedom;  this  was  the  one  channel 
through  which  the  vital  flood  could  pour  it- 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  CHILD  385 

self.  No  wonder  that  it  seemed  so  very  im- 
portant, or  that  educative  processes  should  be 
belittled  in  comparison.  There  was  lacking, 
too,  in  Bushnell's  time,  the  biological  mode 
of  thought  which  has  so  helped  us  to  take  iu 
the  notion  of  development.  Finally,  there 
was  lacking  the  background  of  modern 
schools.  The  educational  reform  had  not  yet 
won  its  way  to  the  popular  consciousness. 
The  common  schools  were  still  narrow,  tradi- 
tional, repressive.  Any  thorough  reform  of 
religious  education  would  have  seemed  revolu- 
tionary and  fantastic.  But  now  that  a  better 
understanding  has  come,  simple  justice  re- 
quires us  to  confess  that  any  advance  we  may 
make  at  the  present  time  will  necessarily  pro- 
ceed upon  the  principles  that  Bushnell  enun- 
ciated two  generations  ago. 

213.  The  Sunday-         There  are  some  who  be- 

School 

Movement.  lieve      that      the      Sunday 

school  has  substantially 
solved  the  problem  of  religious  education.  It 
certainly  marks,  as  Ave  have  seen  in  Chapter 
XVII,  an  enormous  advance.  But  after  we 
have  acknowledged  the  virtues  of  this  mag- 
nificent movement,  the  fact  remains  that  it 
has  not  yet  solved  the  essential  problems  in- 


386     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

volved  in  its  own  work.  For  the  Sunday 
school  has  made  instruction,  rather  than  edu- 
cation, its  chosen  work,  and  not  even  instruc- 
tion in  religion  as  such,  but  instruction  in  the 
Bible.  Its  point  of  departure,  too,  has  been 
essentially  dogmatic.  It  has  commonly  sought, 
not  so  much  to  develop  the  religious  germ  in 
the  soul  of  the  pupil,  as  to  fortify  him  with  a 
set  of  dogmatic  ideas  supported  by  Bible 
texts.  Again,  missing  the  educational  aim, 
the  Sunday  school  has  naturally  neglected 
to  employ  the  means  and  methods  of  edu- 
cation, even  in  its  own  chosen  work  of 
biblical  instruction.  To  say  that  every 
principle  of  teaching  is  commonly  violated 
is  bad  enough,  but  the  whole  truth  is 
worse,  and  that  is  that,  with  the  exception  of 
a  few  schools,  and  of  the  primary  department 
in  many  schools,  there  has  been  until  recently 
scarcely  any  consciousness  that  teaching  has 
any  principles.  Hence,  the  Sunday  school  has 
largely  failed  to  teach  the  Bible  even  from  the 
chosen  point  of  view.  The  information  that 
is  imparted  is  scrappy  and  inaccurate,  in 
many  cases  the  merest  hodge-podge  of  names, 
places,  and  stories,  without  connection,  or  per- 
spective, or  correct  sense  of  spiritual  values. 


THE  CnURCn  AND  THE  CHILD 


214.  The  Church's        The   aim   of   this  sketch 

Success,   and  the       ,  ,  ,         ,  ^    xi. 

Church's  Failure.  ^^^  been  to  show,  not  the 
amount  of  the  church's 
success  or  failure  as  educator,  but  only  the 
essential  conditions  of  success.  The  church 
has  always  been  succeeding,  yet  never  suc- 
ceeding enough.  Her  failures  have  resulted 
from  the  substitution  of  some  sort  of  mechan- 
ism for  life— the  mechanism  of  a  hierarchy 
exercising  external  authority,  the  mechanism 
of  a  fixed  system  of  dogmas,  the  mechanism  of 
a  particular  type  of  religious  experience,  the 
mechanism  of  a  book.  Her  greatest  successes 
have  come,  in  large  part,  independently  of 
specific  theory,  or  plan,  or  machinery.  Life 
has  propagated  itself  from  generation  to  gen- 
eration through  the  influence  of  personality 
in  home,  in  school,  in  church,  and  this  has 
been  a  genuine  educational  work.  The  church 
has  succeeded  in  Christian  education  because 
she  has  had  within  her  a  life  that  lies  deeper 
than  all  her  formulas  and  all  her  forms  of  or- 
ganisation and  work.  A  part  of  the  educa- 
tional problem  that  is  now  before  her  is  to 
give  this  life  free  course  in  relation  to  the 
young.  But  this  implies  that  it  have  free 
course  within  her  own  consciousness.  A 
church  fettered  by  its  own  forms,  whether 


388     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

of  organisation,  or  method,  or  doctrine, 
inevitably  fails  to  do  its  best  as  educa- 
tor. The  fundamental  condition  of  success  is 
that  we  live,  and  that  we  live  abundantly, 
freely,  and  broadly  enough  to  take  in  all  gen- 
uine life. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

EDUCATION  AND  PRESENT  RELIGIOUS  PROBLEMS 

215.  Education  The  last  chapter  tended 

and  Vital  Piety.  .       ■,  4.1,    4.        i  ■^.   ^ 

to  show  that  only  a  vital,  as 

distinguished  from  a  dogmatic  or  formal, 
grasp  of  Christianity  furnishes  the  proper 
background  for  Christian  education.  The 
further  question  may  now  be  asked  whether 
Christian  education  is  not  the  chief  support 
of  vital  piety.  Three  sets  of  contrasting  no- 
tions are  here  involved.  First  comes  the  dog- 
matic as  contrasted  with  the  vital  conception 
of  discipleship.  The  dogmatic  view  makes 
the  acceptance  of  a  creed  a  preliminary  to 
Christian  living,  the  vital  view  puts  living 
first,  and  makes  the  creed  a  product  and  ex- 
pression of  life.  The  one  identifies  education 
with  instruction,  while  the  other  identifies  it 
with  development  of  the  personality.  Un- 
derneath this  opposition  lies,  in  the  second 
place,  the  problem  of  authority.  Here  the 
opposing  ideas  are  those  of  truth  external  to 
one's  being  and  imposed  upon  one  from  with- 
out, and  truth  involved  in  one's  being  and 
realised   in   an   inner   experience.      The   one 


390     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

would  make  of  education  a  bestowal  upon  the 
child,  the  other  an  unfolding  of  the  child. 
But  deeper  still  lies,  in  the  third  place,  an 
opposition  between  two  conceptions  of  God's 
relation  to  the  world— God  as  existing  in  only 
external  relations  to  creation,  and  God  as  im- 
manent in  the  whole  of  it.  The  former  con- 
ception, representing  him  as  coming  into  our 
lives  chiefly  in  special  experiences,  is  well  able 
to  provide  for  religious  crises,  but  not  for  con- 
tinuous religious  development.  The  doctrine 
of  divine  immanence,  however,  provides  a 
basis  for  continuous  development,  or  educa- 
tion proper. 

The  Christian  thought  of  our  time  has  al- 
ready made  choice  between  these  alternative 
views.  The  immanent  God,  whose  authority 
is  internal  and  identical  with  the  laws  of  self- 
realisation,  and  with  whom  we  come  into  rela- 
tions not  primarily  through  belief  but  rather 
through  the  whole  circle  of  impulses  and  as- 
pirations that  make  us  men — this  is  the  stand- 
point that  we  have  won.  Here  we  find  not 
only  a  basis  for  a  theory  of  religious  educa- 
tion, but  also  a  practical  condition  of  vital 
piety.  We  perceive  that  Christian  education, 
which  promotes  the  growing  sense  of  God, 
must  always  be  the  chief  means  of  maintain- 


PRESENT  RELIGIOUS  PROBLEMS  391 

ing  such  piety.  The  inspiration  to  spiritual 
living  is  not  a  set  of  beliefs,  or  even  occasional 
intimacy  with  God,  but  our  realisation  of  him 
as  the  ground  of  our  whole  life  and  of  all  the 
things  with  which  we  have  to  do.  Now,  edu- 
cation is  the  means  by  which  the  immature 
human  being  is  made  acquainted  with  his 
world  and  with  himself;  it  is  the  process  by 
which  we  reveal  to  him  what  constitutes  real 
living.  It  is  therefore  the  primary  means  of 
maintaining  in  the  individual  and  in  the 
world  at  large  the  comforting,  joy-giving,  all- 
conquering  piety  that  realises  God  as  the  ever- 
present  basis,  law,  and  end  of  our  life. 

216.  Education  This  point  of  view  also 

and   the   Bible.  ■>     .^  i    -•  n     j 

reveals  the  relation  or  edu- 
cation to  the  newer,  or  historical  method  of 
studying  the  Bible.  The  Scriptures  are  an 
outgrowth  of  life.  They  are  a  product  of  ex- 
perience, chiefly  of  religious  experiences  that 
arose  through  the  continuous,  life-giving  touch 
of  the  divine  hand  upon  men  and  peoples 
through  a  long  history.  To  study  the  Scrip- 
tures by  historical  methods  is  simply  to  get  as 
near  to  these  experiences  as  possible.  To  ask 
when,  by  whom,  under  what  circumstances, 
and  for  what  primary  purpose  each  book  was 
written  implies  nothing  more  than  common 


892     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

honesty  as  to  facts  and  a  just  valuation  of 
God's  presence  in  actual  events.  Yet  many 
persons  have  supposed  that  to  study  the  Bible 
just  as  we  study  other  history  and  other  lit- 
erature robs  it  of  its  spiritual  glow  and  so 
lessens  its  value  for  spiritual  culture.  Hence, 
"devotional"  study  has  been  set  apart  by 
itself  as  though  it  were  independent  of  the 
methods  by  which  alone  historical  truth  can  be 
ascertained.  Yet  surely  the  truth  of  Bible 
history  and  the  truth  about  its  documents 
must  be  good  for  the  spiritual  nature. 

It  is  easy  to  understand,  however,  why  the 
historical  point  of  view  comes  as  a  shock  to 
many  persons  who  were  reared  in  relatively 
theoretical  and  abstract  views  of  the  Bible. 
Under  these  views,  Biblical  characters  and 
events  were  not  as  much  plain  facts  as  sym- 
bols of  spiritual  truth.  The  story  of  the 
exodus  and  the  wanderings  in  the  desert,  for 
instance,  was  taught  as  if  every  incident 
thereof  had  a  personal  reference  to  each  pupil. 
As  a  result,  the  historic  facts  tended  to  sink 
into  a  hazy  background,  and  the  Bible  itself 
hovered  in  sacred  mistiness  between  heaven 
and  earth.  When  the  air  grows  transparent, 
and  we  behold  the  book  and  all  its  contents 
resting  upon  the  very  same  earth  whereon  we 


PRESENT  RELIGIOUS  PROBLEMS  393 

stand,  our  first  impulse  is  to  think  that  it  is 
less  a  divine  book  and  its  contents  less  a  di- 
vine revelation.  Yet  in  reality,  losing  the 
Bible  as  a  collection  of  symbols,  we  have 
gained  the  Bible  as  a  record  of  real  life.  Giv- 
ing up  the  abstract,  we  receive  the  concrete  in 
return.  Finding  Biblical  persons  and  events 
nearer  ourselves,  we  find  the  God  who  was 
moving  within  them  also  nearer. 

Here  lies  the  positive  educational  signifi- 
cance of  the  historical  method.  It  helps  us  to 
meet  the  pedagogic  rule  of  putting  the  con- 
crete before  the  abstract.  It  brings  us  also 
closer  to  the  prime  means  of  spiritual  educa- 
tion, personality,  and  it  endows  biblical  per- 
sonages with  human  interest.  Llaking  us  real- 
ise how  much  we  have  in  common  with  the 
biblical  characters,  it  has  made  vivid  the  spir- 
itual laws  that  pervade  all  life,  ours  as  well  as 
theirs.  We  have,  in  fact,  only  begun  to  guess 
the  possible  value  of  the  Bible  as  an  instru- 
ment of  religious  education.  What  is  now 
needed  is  a  large  body  of  intelligent  middle- 
men who  will  carry  to  the  whole  people  the 
practical  fruits  of  technical  biblical  learning.^ 

1  Not,  of  course,  the  technical  paraphernalia  of  such 
learning,  or  the  disputations  of  scholars,  but  the  assured 
results.  For  a  discussion  of  the  relation  of  the  historical 
method  to  practical  religion,  see  an  address  by  Thomas 
C.  Hall  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Religious  Education  As- 
sociation, 1904. 


394     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

217.  Education  As  never  before,  perhaps, 

and   the   Revival.       ,,  ,    ,.  ^     ^i     .   ,. 

the    relation    or    Christian 

nurture  to  the  revival  is  coming  into  the 
foreground.  There  is  discernible  an  unfortu- 
nate tendency  to  look  upon  these  two  methods 
or  processes  as  somehow  opposed  to  each 
other,  whereas  both  are  necessary.  There  is 
no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  oral  presenta- 
tion of  truth  through  preaching,  or  the  strong 
stirring  of  men's  emotions  through  appeals  to 
conscience,  or  the  influence  of  social  conta- 
gion in  turning  men's  minds  to  the  problems 
of  duty  and  destiny,  or  sudden  awakenings 
from  indifference  and  sin  are  to  cease  in  the 
life  of  the  church.  What  may  be  looked  for, 
however,  is  first,  clearer  recognition  of  the 
developmental  and  social  elements  in  the  re- 
claiming of  adult  sinners,  and  especially,  sec- 
ond, a  recovery  from  our  pernicious  habit  of 
trying  to  save  the  young  through  the  abrupt 
processes  of  the  revival  instead  of  the  gradual 
processes  of  education.^  "The  sublime  vital 
fact  in  conversion,"  says  President  King, 
"surely  is  that  we  have  now  entered  upon  a 
voluntary,  life-long,  personal  relation  to  God, 
and  so  thrown  ourselves  open  to  the  presence 

1  See  Chapter  X  of  George  A  Coe :  The  Religion  of  a 
Mature  Mind   (Chicago,  1902). 


PRESENT  RELIGIOUS  PROBLEMS  395 

and  power  in  our  lives  of  the  personal  Spirit 
of  the  loving,  mighty  God."^  "Whether  we 
call  this  conversion,  or  decision,  or  commit- 
ment, it  is  certainly  a  normal  outcome  of  wise 
and  continuous  religious  training.  AVhat 
does,  or  can  the  revival  do  beyond  restoring  to 
men  some  meagre  part  of  what  they  have 
missed  through  imperfect  education,  or 
through  their  own  neglect  of  their  education  ? 
The  revival  is  primarily  remedial,  while  edu- 
cation is  primarily  constructive.  For  this 
reason  education  in  religion  must  be  the  chief 
means  of  saving  the  world.  After  the  plastic 
years  of  youth  few  men  are  converted,  and 
even  during  the  plastic  years  the  revival  never 
succeeds  in  making  up  for  the  awful  waste  of 
young  life  through  our  neglect  of  education 
from  the  cradle  up.  Our  one  first-class  chance 
at  men  is  during  their  years  of  growth.  The 
progress  of  the  kingdom  depends  primarily 
upon  our  securing  control  of  more  and  more 
children  and  educating  them  right.  Failing 
to  do  this,  we  can  never,  by  any  possible 
means,  "catch  up"  with  our  task. 

» Henry  Churchill  King :  Christian  Training  and  the 
Revival  as  Methods  of  Converting  Men  (Pamphlet  pub- 
lished by  the  Secretarial  Institute,  153  La  Salle  Street, 
Chicago,  1903),  page  29.  One  of  the  best  balanced  dis- 
cussions of  this  topic  known  to  me. 


396     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

218.  Education  Those    who    think    upon 

and  the  Social  ^-  ,  .  „      . 

Problem.    (1)  the     problems     oi     human 

The  Situation.  progress  are  coming  to  see 

that  perhaps  the  greatest 
practical  problem  for  education  at  the  present 
day  grows  out  of  the  social  situation,  particu- 
larly the  struggle  between  individualistic  and 
social  tendencies.  On  the  one  hand,  the  in- 
dividual is  more  than  ever.  He  has  greater 
liberty  of  thought  and  action,  greater  political 
rights,  greater  opportunity  for  acquiring 
knowledge,  more  complete  control  of  the  con- 
ditions of  life.  The  economic  prizes  for  the 
very  able  were  never  so  large.  Yet,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  individual  has  never  been  as 
dependent  upon  others  as  at  present.  One 
cannot  obtain  the  simplest  article  of  food  or 
of  information  without  the  co-operation  of  a 
long  series  of  men.  Trace  the  course  of  a 
beefsteak  or  a  loaf  of  bread  backward  from 
your  home  to  the  point  of  its  production,  and 
you  will  see  how  complicated  society  is  be- 
coming. One  cannot  buy  or  sell,  hire  or  be 
hired,  or  cast  a  vote,  without  being  hemmed 
in,  limited,  controlled,  by  a  vast  network  of 
human  relations.  The  tendency  is  toward  the 
increase  of  these  relations,  and  this  gives  op- 


PRESENT  RELIGIOUS  PROBLEMS  397 

portunity  for  increasing  organisation  of  men 
and  of  capital. 

Our  social  situation  is  largely  determined 
by  the  clashing  of  these  two  tendencies,  the 
organising  and  the  individualising,  and  by 
the  odd  way  in  which  one  passes  into  the 
other.  For  instance,  the  labor  union  repre- 
sents the  principle  of  solidarity,  of  co-opera- 
tion as  against  unlimited  competition.  Yet 
as  against  the  employer  and  the  non-union 
man  it  is  largely  individualistic,  and  it  does 
not  always  with  sufficient  clearness  show  a 
sense  of  subordination  to  law.  On  the  other 
hand,  capitalists,  moved  by  the  organising 
principle  of  solidarity,  combine  among  them- 
selves, the  individual  submitting  to  the  will 
of  the  group.  But  the  group,  in  turn,  is  fre- 
quently individualistic  in  its  effort  to  crush 
labor  unions,  and  anarchistic  in  its  evasions 
of  law  and  its  corruption  of  public  officials. 
With  both  laboring  men  and  capitalists,  too, 
the  organisation  itself  now  and  then  becomes 
a  tool  in  the  hands  of  some  strong  but  un- 
scrupulous individual. 

What  is  to  come  out  of  this  clashing  and 
crushing,  this  blowing  hot  and  blowing  cold  ? 
Certainly  no  truce  based  upon  self-interest 
can  solve  the  problem.    Such  a  truce  is  simply 


398     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 


an  effort  to  cure  the  ills  of  selfishness  by 
means  of  organised  and  armed  selfishness! 
We  shall  not  pluck  figs  from  thistles.  As 
long  as  selfishness  is  the  motive  to  peace,  there 
will  be  evasion  and  violation  of  agreements, 
and  the  war  will  be  simply  disguised  where 
before  it  was  open.  Neither  legislation  nor 
combination,  though  they  can  do  something, 
can  change  the  leopard's  spots. 

219.  (2)  The  Any  permanent  solution 

interVetation.  of    the   difficulty   must  in- 

clude a  change  in  the  gen- 
eral current  of  motive,  a  reversal  of  the 
accepted  presupposition.  Society  must  have 
a  new  heart.  The  whole  industrial  body  is 
sick  for  the  want  of  it.  The  modern  world 
revolves  about  the  ideas  of  individualism  and 
social  unity  without  realising  their  inner 
principle.  True  individualism,  which  is  the 
only  practical  kind,  is  simply  the  Christian 
principle  of  the  final  worth  of  the  individual ; 
as,  on  the  other  hand,  the  tendency  to  organ- 
isation, as  far  as  it  is  or  can  be  sound,  is 
nothing  more  or  less  than  the  Christian  prin- 
ciple of  losing  our  merely  individual  will  in 
regard  for  others.  In  Christianity  and  no- 
where else  do  these  apparently  opposing  tend- 
encies find   their  unity  and   also   a  motive 


PRESENT  RELIGIOUS  PROBLEMS  399 

power  for  their  mutual  realisation.  The  in- 
dividual is  of  final  worth  because  the  Eternal 
is  in  him,  because  God  communicates  himself 
to  his  creature  and  bestows  upon  him  im- 
mortal possibilities.  But  the  individualism 
herein  implied  cannot  be  identified  wdth  self- 
seeking,  for  the  God  and  Father  of  each  is  the 
God  and  Father  of  all,  and  all  w^e  are  breth- 
ren. Thus  the  foundation  of  self-reverence 
is  equally  a  foundation  of  reverence  for 
others.  The  individualistic  and  the  social- 
ising motives  here  blend  into  one  through  the 
Christian  thought  of  God.  Here  liberty  and 
law,  the  interest  of  the  individual  and  the  in- 
terest of  society,  become  identical. 
220.  How  The  purpose  of  Christ  to 

Shall    Society   Get     ,     .  ■>        .  t      x-  e 

a  New  Heart?  bring  about  a  realisation  oi 

this  unity  of  men  under  the 
fatherhood  of  God  is  expressed  in  the  term, 
the  kingdom  of  God.  This  kingdom  is  the 
actual  reality  of  life,  however  much  we  choose 
other  fancied  goods,  however  much  we 
violate  the  laws  of  our  own  being.  The  king- 
dom is  present  as  well  as  future,  visible  as 
well  as  invisible.  It  has  begun  to  secure  con- 
trol of  the  world's  resources,  and  it  will  not 
rest  until  its  control  is  universal.  Every 
shop,   factory,    railroad,   farm,   mine;   every 


400     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

profession  and  trade;  all  branches  of  gov- 
ernment, all  learning  and  art— all  are  to  come 
under  the  control  of  Christ.  This  cannot  be 
accomplished  by  an  external  or  machine-made 
reform ;  it  requires  inner  regeneration  issuing 
in  love  to  God  and  man.  Nor  can  it  be  ac- 
complished by  merely  rescuing  here  and  there 
a  man  who  is  sinking  in  the  waves  of  world- 
liness.  To  regenerate  society  implies  more 
than  the  healing  of  its  sick  members;  it  im- 
plies the  prevention  of  sickness.  Society  can 
be  regenerated  only  by  bringing  the  young  to 
a  realisation  of  the  true  meaning  of  life  be- 
fore they  are  subjected  to  the  full  stress  of  the 
two  warring  tendencies.  Undoubtedly  some- 
thing can  be  done  by  persuading  men  who  are 
in  the  thick  of  the  fight.  They  can  be  induced 
to  soften  the  conflict ;  they  will  consent  to  ar- 
bitration, or  they  will  give  of  their  wealth  to 
alleviate  the  condition  of  those  who  are 
wounded  in  the  struggle.  But  preaching  to 
men  who  are  in  the  midst  of  a  battle  will  not 
stop  the  battle.  It  will  not  give  a  new  heart 
to  the  opposing  armies.  The  war  can  be 
stopped  only  by  stopping  the  supply  of  fight- 
ing men,  and  this  can  be  done  only  by  de- 
veloping the  social  sense  through  the  Chris- 
tian education  of  the  young.     Children,  the 


PRESENT  RELIGIOUS  PROBLEMS  401 

generality  of  them,  must  be  brought  to  realise 
that  their  personality  is  holy  ground,  and 
that,  for  the  same  reason,  the  personality  of 
their  fellows  is  holy.  God  in  me,  and  God 
in  my  fellows;  God  the  Father  of  us  all — this, 
brought  to  clear  consciousness  and  developed 
into  its  practical  consequences,  is  the  solution, 
and  the  only  solution,  of  our  social  problem. 
It  is  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth. 

221.  (4)  A  New  But    existing    modes    of 

Religious  t    .  j         ^-  i 

Education  religious  education  are  only 

Needed.  partly  adapted  to  this  work. 

Not  only  are  present  meth- 
ods defective ;  their  point  of  view  also  is  only 
partially  correct.  Their  view^  of  the  indi- 
vidual and  of  society  is  unconsciously  per- 
meated with  presuppositions  that  have  come 
down  from  scholastic  theology  and  from  the 
older  forms  of  monarchical  government.  A 
good  citizen,  as  measured  by  the  standards  of 
monarchical  society,  may  be  a  very  bad  one  as 
measured  by  the  needs  of  democratic  society. 
When  a  people  is  governed  from  above,  the 
virtuous  citizen  is  assumed  to  be  the  submis- 
sive one.  He  is  diligent  in  business,  peace- 
able, honest,  charitable,  ready  to  defend  his 
country  against  its  enemies,  but  he  is  not 
supposed    to    interfere    with    the    course    of 


402     EDUCATION   IN    RK.LIGION   AND   MORALS 

events  or  to  meddle  with  the  powers  that  con- 
trol society.  But  in  a  democracy  the  merely 
submissive  citizen  is  a  public  danger.  Here 
the  only  safety  lies  in  the  aggressiveness  that 
springs  from  a  keen  sense  of  individual  re- 
sponsibility for  political  and  social  conditions. 
Again,  under  the  scholastic  conception  of 
Christianity,  faith  also  is  an  act  of  submission 
to  external  authority.  It  involves  a  certain 
abnegation  of  individuality,  with  no  adequate 
offset  in  the  increase  of  sociality.  Doubtless 
Protestantism  has  in  principle  overcome  this 
notion.  When  we  stop  to  think  seriously 
about  faith  we  discover  that  it  is  properly  the 
self-assertion  of  the  deepest  things  of  the  in- 
dividual heart  and  mind.  Though  it  involves 
the  renunciation  of  self-will,  it  is  nevertheless 
an  aggressive  act.  It  is  the  taking  of  sides 
in  the  mightiest  conflict  of  ideals,  and  the 
active  devotion  of  one's  energy  to  the  chosen 
cause.  Yet  our  religious  education  still 
interprets  faith  as  submission  to  external 
authority,  still  fails  clearly  to  recognise  the 
aggressive  element  in  the  social  teachings  of 
Jesus.  Faith  is  therefore  placed  in  an  apolo- 
getic attitude  toward  the  modern  mind,  and 
religion  remains  rather  a  refuge  from  social 
ills  than  a  rebuker  and  rectifier  of  them. 


PRESENT  RELIGIOUS  PROBLEMS  403 

What  is  wanted  in  our  religious  education 
is  more  openness  toward  modern  knowledge, 
more  boldness  to  take  advantage  of  its  help 
in  the  interpretation  of  life,  and,  in  respect 
to  social  and  political  conditions,  more  of  the 
fighting  spirit.  Christ  sends  into  the  world 
not  peace  but  a  sword.  Christianity  has  a 
definite  practical  propaganda  which  involves 
both  the  individual  and  society.  It  fulfils  its 
mission  to  either  one  only  as  it  fulfils  its  mis- 
sion to  the  other  also.  The  child  and  the 
youth  should  therefore  be  imbued  with  the 
sense  of  having  a  positive  mission,  of  being 
enlisted  in  a  great  cause,  and  of  participating 
in  a  great  conflict.  Not  until  this  spirit  is 
somehow  infused  into  our  religious  education 
can  it  even  approximately  fulfil  its  mission 
toward  society.^ 

222.  Education  We  are  hearing  in  these 

and  the  Historic  ,  ,,  n        -r^      ,        , 

Christ.  days     the     call.     Back    to' 

Christ!  Weary  of  labor 
over  creeds  and  formulas,  over  theories  and 
speculations,  we  are  finding  rest  and  also  in- 

*  Cf.  George  B.  Dawson  :  Science  and  Religious  Edu- 
cation.— Biblical  World,  March,  1904.  page  200.  In  this 
article  Professor  Dawson  strongly  insists  that  religious 
education  must  be  broad  enough  to  include  a  religious 
use  of  the  sciences  of  nature.  Religious  education  must 
really  adjust  men  to  the  world  in  which  they  are  placed. 
This  Includes  the  laws  of  their  own  bodies  and  minds, 
and  the  industrial,  economic,  and  political  processes  of 
■oclety. 


404     EDUCATION    IX    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

spiration  in  the  Christ  considered  as  an  his- 
torical person.  What  significance  has  this 
movement  for  education?  It  is  clear,  in  the 
first  place,  that  in  our  habitual  thought  of 
Christ  as  Savior,  Revealer,  Prophet,  Priest,  or 
King,  we  have  had  in  mind  chiefly  his  relation 
to  adults.  Almost  always  his  mission  has  been 
looked  upon  as  the  making  over  of  men  rather 
than  the  making  of  men.  But  he  is  also  Ed- 
ucator. He  enters  into  the  whole  develop- 
mental process  of  humanity  as  a  positive, 
formative  principle— an  organic  principle,  if 
you  will.  This  is  not  a  new  thought,  yet  we 
have  scarcely  realised  that  an  organic  prin- 
ciple in  humanity  becomes  effective  chiefly 
through  its  influence  upon  men  in  their  im- 
mature, plastic  years.  The  making  over  of 
men  can  never  be  anything  more  than  a  neces- 
sary addendum  or  necessary  preliminary  to 
the  central  process  of  making  men.  The 
world  is  to  be  saved  chiefly  through  Christ's 
influence  upon  children  and  youth. 

Here  appears  the  educational  significance 
of  the  new  emphasis  upon  the  historic  Christ. 
Adults  may  appreciate  something  of  the 
Christ  of  dogma  or  the  Christ  of  mystical 
experiences;  but  children  and  youth  must 
meet  him  as  a  historical  person,  essentially 


PRESENT  RELIGIOUS  PROBLEMS  405 

*'■'■■- 

like  other  persons,  or  they  will  not  feel  or 
appreciate  his  power.  Now,  appreciation  of 
the  historic  Christ  puts  into  its  proper  place 
the  supreme  force  in  education,  personality. 
With  how  many  of  us  was  the  first  glimpse 
of  the  Master  a  distant  one,  like  our  knowl- 
edge of  the  atoms  or  of  the  luminiferous 
ether.  He  was  in  every  sense  unearthly.  But 
with  what  refreshment  of  soul  did  we  after- 
yard  discover  the  utter  concreteness  of  his 
person,  and  the  fact  of  our  fellowship  with 
him  through  the  ordinary  processes  of  his- 
tory !  As  thinkers  we  may  well  believe  in  the 
metaphysical  union  of  God  and  man  in 
Christ;  as  mystics  we  may  well  recognise  the 
presence  of  the  real  Christ  in  the  heart;  but 
as  men,  rather  than  metaphysicians  or  mys- 
tics, it  is  of  inestimable  value  to  find  that, 
just  as  we  are  related  to  Washington  and 
Lincoln  in  the  unity  of  life  that  constitutes 
our  Republic,  so  we  are  historically  one  with 
Jesus  in  the  unity  of  the  kingdom  of  God, 
Religious  education  may  culminate  in  a  grasp 
of  the  metaphysical  or  mystical  Christ,  but 
it  must  begin  with  a  sense  of  membership  in 
a  community  of  persons  of  whom  Christ  is  one 
in  exactly  the  same  way  as  other  persons. 
Thus  it  is  that  the  historic  Christ  is  the 


406     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

supreme  Educator.  But  this  is  not  all.  Even 
when  we  advance  to  the  notions  of  incarna- 
tion and  atonement,  we  are  not  outside  the 
circle  of  educational  ideas.  For  incarnation 
is  the  supreme  instance  of  the  sharing  of  life 
through  which  an  incomplete  life  attains  un- 
foldment  or  education.  As  to  atonement, 
whatever  tragedy  of  the  divine  heart  is  sug- 
gested by  this  term,  the  working  out  of  the 
fact  in  the  world,  the  historical  at-one-ment 
of  man  and  God,  is  accomplished  by  the  essen- 
tially educational  method  of  revelation 
through  personality  in  the  sharing  of  life. 
The  process  of  redemption  is  at  root  all  one 
with  the  process  of  education.  A  parent  who 
is  true  to  his  parenthood,  or  a  teacher  who 
is  true  to  his  calling,  not  less  than  a  priest 
who  ministers  at  the  altar,  distributes  the 
bread  of  life  to  hungry  souls;  he  drinks  the 
cup  that  Jesus  drank,  is  baptised  with  the 
baptism  wherewith  he  was  baptised,  becomes 
a  part  of  the  great  process  of  incarnation 
whereby  God  reconciles  the  world  to  him- 
self!^ 

1  See  John  17  :  20-23. 


A  SELECTED  AND  CLASSIFIED 
BIBLIOGKAPHY 

Note. — This  Bibliography  is  not  intended  to  be  ex- 
haustive in  any  part.  It  includes  no  publications  in 
foreign  languages,  and  it  omits  many  important  publi- 
cations in  English.  It  is  sufficiently  extensive,  how- 
ever, to  show  where  some  of  the  important  material  on 
all  the  topics  discussed  in  this  book  may  be  found. 

BIBLIOGRAPHIES 

General  Bihliographies  of  Education: 

G.   Stanley  Hall  and  John  M.  Mansfield: 

Hints  Toward  a  Select  and  Descriptive 

Bibliography     of     Education     (Boston, 

1893). 
W.  S.  Monroe :  Bibliography  of  Education 

(New  York,  1897). 
Bibliographies     of     Religious     and     Moral 

Education: 
A  general  list  is  given  in  S.  B.  Haslett: 

The    Pedagogical    Bible     School     (New 

York,  1903),  page  349. 
On   the    General   History   of   the   Sunday 

School   and   Its    Predecessors,    H.    Clay 

Trumbull:    The    Sunday    School     (The 

"Yale    Lectures,"    Philadelphia,    1896), 

page  381. 
On  the  history  and  statistics  of  the  Sunday 


408     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

school  in  America,  M.  C.  Brown :  Sun- 
day-School Movements  in  America  (New 
York,  1901),  page  246. 

On  Sunday-school  pedagogy  in  general,  A. 
C.  Ellis  in  Pedagogical  Seminary,  Vol- 
ume III.,  page  402. 

Books  for  boys  and  books  about  boys,  Vol- 
ume III,  Number  2  of  How  to  Help  Boys 
(see  list  of  periodicals  in  the  next  divi- 
sion of  this  Bibliography). 

PERIODICALS  AND  PROCEEDINGS 

Proceedings  of  the  Religious  Education  Asso- 
ciation (published  annually  at  153  La  Salle 
Street,  Chicago).  Indispensable  collections 
of  addresses  and  papers  covering  every 
phase  of  religious  education. 

Proceedings  of  the  National  Educational  As- 
sociation (published  annually  by  the  Secre- 
tary, Winona,  Minn.). 

The  Biblical  World  (monthly,  Chicago). 
Publishes  many  valuable  articles  on  reli- 
gious education. 

The  American  Journal  of  Religious  Psychol- 
ogy and  Education  (Worcester,  Mass.). 

Work  with  Boys.— Formerly  called  How  to 
Help  Boys  (quarterly,  14  Beacon  Street, 
Boston). 


SELECTED  AND   CLASSIFIED  BIBLIOGRAPHY  409 

Association  Boys  (bi-monthly,  3  West  29th 
Street,  New  York). 

The  Catholic  Review  of  Reviews  (monthly, 
Chicago).  Formerly  the  Review  of  Catho- 
lic Pedagogy.  Gives  considerable  space  to 
educational  topics. 

The  Pedagogical  Seminary  (quarterly, 
Worcester,  Mass.).  Prints  many  articles 
on  religious  and  moral  training. 

Studies  in  Education  (4401  Sansom  Street, 
Philadelphia).  Devoted  largely  to  child- 
study. 

The  Educational  Review  (monthly,  New 
York).  Discusses  the  broader  phases  of  ed- 
ucation. 

HISTORIES   OF   EDUCATION   AND   OF 
EDUCATIONAL  THEORIES 

Thomas  Davidson:  A  History  of  Education 
(New  York,  1901). 

R.  H.  Quick:  Educational  Reformers  (New 
York,  1890). 

J.  P.  Munroe:  The  Educational  Ideal  (Bos- 
ton, 1896). 

S.  S.  Laurie :  Historical  Survey  of  Pre-Chris- 
tian Education  (London,  1895). 

H.  Clay  Trumbull:  The  Sunday  School:  Its 


410     EDUCATION   IN   RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

Origin,  Mission,  Methods,  and  Auxiliaries 
(Philadelphia,  1896). 
Marianna   C.  Brown:   Sunday-School   Move- 
ments in  America  (New  York,  1901). 

THE    KELATION    OF    EDUCATION    TO 
MORALS  AND  RELIGION 

Nicholas  Murray  Butler:  The  Meaning  of 
Education  (New  York,  1898),  Chapter  I.; 
also  Lecture  I  in  Principles  of  Religious 
Education  (New  York,  1900). 

Charles  A.  McMurry:  The  Elements  of  Gen- 
eral Method  (New  York,  1903),  Chapter  I 
—''The  Chief  Aim  of  Education." 

John  Dewey:  My  Pedagogic  Creed  (New 
York:  E.  L.  Kellogg  &  Co.).  A  small  pam- 
phlet, but  it  contains  the  gist  of  a  whole 
theory  of  education. 

H.  H.  Home:  The  Philosophy  of  Education 
(New  York,  1904),  especially  Chapter 
VIII. 

George  A.  Coe  and  Edwin  D.  Starbuck:  Ad- 
dresses on  "Religious  Education  as  a  Part 
of  General  Education,"  in  Proceedings  of 
the  Religious  Education  Association,  1903 
(Chicago). 

J.  L.  Spalding:  Means  and  Ends  of  Educa- 
tion (Chicago,  1901).    Also  Education  and 


SELECTED  AND   CLASSIFIED  BIBLIOGRAPHY  411 

the  Future  of  Religion  (pamphlet,  The  Ave 

Maria,  Notre  Dame,  Indiana). 
Principles  of  Religious  Education  (New  York, 

1900). 
George  A.  Coe:   The  Religion  of  a  Mature 

Mind  (Chicago,  1902),  Chapter  X.-" Sal- 
vation by  Education." 
Third   Year-Book   of   the    National   Herbart 

Society  (Chicago,  1897).  The  entire  volume 

is  devoted  to-  moral  education. 

THE   PRINCIPLES   OP   TEACHING, 

ESPECIALLY  AS  APPLIED  TO 

CHARACTER-FORMATION 

J.  L.  Hughes:  Froebel's  Educational  Laws 
for  all  Teachers  (New  York,  1899). 

Friedrich  Froebel:  The  Education  of  Man 
(English  translation.  New  York,  1888). 
The  Student's  Froebel  (Boston,  1894)  is  a 
small  volume  of  extracts  from  The  Educa- 
tion of  Man. 

Thomas  Davidson:  A  History  of  Education' 
(New  York,  1901),  Division  III. 

Patterson  DuBois:  The  Point  of  Contact  in 
Teaching  (New  York,  1901).  Also  The 
Natural  Way  in  Moral  Training  (New 
York,  1903). 


412     EDUCATION    IN    RELI«ION   AND   MORALS 

William  James:  Talks  to  Teachers  on  Psy- 
chology (New  York,  1899). 

Charles  A.  McMurry:  The  Elements  of  Gen- 
eral Method  (New  York,  1903).  Also 
Charles  A.  and  Frank  M.  McMurry:  The 
Method  of  the  Recitation  (New  York, 
1903).  Chapter  XII  gives  a  summary  of 
the  laws  that  underlie  the  process  of 
teaching. 

R.  N.  Roark:  Method  in  Education  (New 
York:  American  Book  Co.).  The  first  95 
pages  give  a  brief  discussion  of  method,  the 
recitation,  drills,  reviews,  examinations, 
etc. 

EDUCATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY 

General  Principles: 

William  James:  Talks  to  Teachers  on  Psy- 
chology (New  York,  1899). 

James  Sully:  Teacher's  Hand-Book  of  Psy- 
chology, 4th  edition  (New  York,  1900). 

Dexter   and    Garlick:    Psychology    in    the 
School-Room  (New  York,  1900). 
The  Child-Mind  and  Its  Development: 

James  Sully:  Studies  of  Childhood  (New 
York,  1900).  Children's  Ways  (New 
York,  1902)  by  the  same  author,  is  made 


SELECTED   AND   CLASSIFIED  BIBLIOGRAPHY  41b 

up  of  selections  from  Studies  of  Child- 
hood, with  some  additional  matter. 

J.  G.  Compayre:  The  Intellectual  and 
Moral  Development  of  the  Child,  2  vol- 
umes (New  York,  1896-1902). 

Frederick  Tracy:  The  Psychology  of 
Childhood  (Boston,  1901). 

A.  R.  Taylor:  The  Study  of  the  Child 
(New  York,  1899). 

E.  A.  Kirkpatrick :  Fundamentals  of  Child- 
Study  (New  York;  1903). 

Irving  King:  The  Psychology  of  Child  De- 
velopment (Chicago,  1903)., 

J.  M.  Baldwin:  Social  and  Ethical  Inter- 
pretations of  Mental  Development  (New 
York,  1897). 

5.  B.  Haslett:  The  Pedagogical  Bible 
School  (New  York,'  1903),  Part  II. 

Earl  Barnes:  Studies  in  Education  (See 
Periodical  List). 

6.  Stanley  Hall:  Adolescence,  2  volumes 
(New  York,  1904). 

First  and  Second  Year-Books  of  the  Na- 
tional Herbart  Society  (Chicago).  Con- 
tain the  pros  and  cons  of  the  theory  of 
"recapitulation"  and  its  educational  ap- 
plications. 


414     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

The  Psychology  of  Eeligion: 

Edwin  D.  Starbuck :  The  Psychology  of  Re- 
ligion (London,  1899). 

George  A.  Coe:  The  Spiritual  Life  (New 
York,  1900). 

G.  Stanley  Hall :  Address  on  The  Religious 
Content  of  the  Child-Mind,  in  Principles 
of  Religious  Education  (New  York, 
1900).  Also  Chapter  XIV  of  Adoles- 
cence, 2  volumes  (New  York,  1904). 

George  E.  Dawson:  Article  on  Children's 
Interest  in  the  Bible,  in  the  Pedagogical 
Seminary,  Volume  VII,  page  151. 

William  Byron  Forbush :  The  Boy  Problem 
(Boston,  1901). 

Earl  Barnes:  Article  on  Children's  Atti- 
tude Toward  Theology,  in  Studies  in  Ed- 
ucation, Volume  II,  page  283. 

Rufus  M.  Jones:  A  Boy's  Religion  from 
Memory  (Philadelphia,  1902). 

John  Dewey  and  Henry  Churchill  King: 
Addresses  on  "Religious  Education  as 
Conditioned  by  Modern  Psychology  and 
Pedagogy,"  in  Proceedings  of  the  Re- 
ligious Education  Association,  1903 
(Chicago). 


SELECTED  AND  CLASSIFIED  BIBLIOGRAPHY  415 

THE    CHRISTIAN    VIEW    OF    CHILD- 
DEVELOPMENT 

Horace   Bushnell:    Christian   Nurture    (New 
York:  Scribners). 

Henry  Churchill  King:  Christian  Training 
and  the  Revival  as  Means  of  Converting 
Men  (Pamphlet  published  by  the  Secre- 
tarial Institute,  153  LaSalle  St.,  Chicago). 

Henry  Van  Dyke:  God  and  Little  Children 
(New  York,  1890). 

F.  G.  Hibbard:  The  Religion  of  Childhood 
(Cincinnati:  Poe  &  Hitchcock,  1866). 

R.  J.  Cooke :  Christianity  and  Childhood 
(New  York,  1891). 

George  A.  Coe :  The  Religion  of  a  Mature 
Mind  (Chicago,  1902),  Chapter  X. 

James    Sully:    Studies    in    Childhood    (New 
York,  1900),  Chapter  VII.     This  chapter 
analyses  the  good  and  evil  impulses  of  chil- 
dren. 

THE   FAMILY   AS    AN   EDUCATIONAL 
INSTITUTION 

Horace  Bushnell:  Christian  Nurture  (New 
York:  Scribners). 

George  B.  Stewart  and  Jean  F.  Loba:  Ad- 
dresses on  "Religious  and  Moral  Education 
Through  the  Home^ ' '  in  Proceedings  of  the 


416     EDUCATION    IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

Religious  Education  Association,  1903 
(Chicago). 

How  to  Help  Boys,  January,  1902  (see  list  of 
Periodicals  under  "Work  with  Boys"). 
This  number  is  devoted  to  "The  Boy  and 
the  Home." 

Patterson  DuBois:  Fireside  Child-Study 
(New  York,  1903).  Also  Beckonings  from 
Little  Hands  (New  York,  1900). 

Jacob  A.  Riis:  The  Peril  and  the  Preserva- 
tion of  the  Home  (Philadelphia,  1903). 

Franklin  Carter:  Address  on  "The  College 
and  the  Home, ' '  in  The  Message  of  the  Col- 
lege to  the  Church  (Boston,  1901). 

Samuel  T.  Dutton:  Social  Phases  of  Educa- 
tion in  the  School  and  the  Home  (New 
York,  1900). 

Herbert  Spencer:  Education,  Intellectual, 
Moral,  and  Physical  (New  York,  1872). 

THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

The  Graded  Bible  School  (For  sale  by  W.  F. 
McMillen,  153  La  Salle  St.,  Chicago).  Four 
valuable  little  pamphlets  published  by  the 
Association  of  Congregational  Churches  of 
Illinois.  One  of  the  simplest,  most  prac- 
tical introductions  to  modern  methods. 


SELECTED  AND  CLASSIFIED  BIBLIOGRAPHY  417 

Burton  and  Mathews:  Principles  and  Ideals 
for  the  Sunday  School  (Chicago,  1903). 

Principles  of  Religious  Education  (New- 
York,  1900),  and  The  Sunday-School  Out- 
look (New  York,  1901).  Two  series  of  lec- 
tures on  various  problems. 

Proceedings  of  the  Religious  Education  As- 
sociation, 1903  and  1904  (Chicago). 

S.  B.  Haslett :  The  Pedagogical  Bible  School 
(New  York,  1903). 

George  Wliitefield  Mead:  Modern  Methods  in 
Sunday-School  Work  (New  York,  1903). 
Contains  a  large  amount  of  information  as 
to  successful  devices  of  all  sorts 

John  Adams :  Primer  on  Teaching,  with  Spe- 
cial Reference  to  Sunday-School  Work 
(Edinburgh,  1903).  Short,  simple,  and 
practical. 

Walter  L.  Hervey :  Picture- Work  (New  York: 
Revell).  A  capital  little  book  on  how  to 
make  truth  vivid  by  story-telling,  by  the 
use  of  pictures,  by  good  teaching,  etc. 

W.  W.  Smith:  Sunday-school  Teaching  (Mil- 
waukee: Young  Churchman  Co.,  1903). 
Good  but  fragmentary  treatment  of  the 
principles  of  teaching. 

A.    H.    McKinney:    Bible-School    Pedagogy 


418     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

(New  York,  1900).  A  scrappy  book,  but  it 
contains  many  useful  hints. 

Mary  J,  C.  Foster:  The  Kindergarten  of  the 
Church  (New  York,  1894). 

Joshua  Pitch:  Educational  Aims  and  Meth- 
ods (Cambridge,  1900).  Lecture  I  is  on 
"Methods  of  Instruction  as  Illustrated  in 
the  Bible'"';  Lecture  XII,  "The  Sunday 
School  of  the  Future,"  has  special  refer- 
ence to  conditions  in  Great  Britain. 

George  W.  Pease :  Articles  on  "  A  Course  of 
Study  in  Outline  for  the  Kindergarten 
Grades  of  the  Bible  School,"  in  the  Biblical 
World,  November  and  December,  1903. 
Also  article  on  "A  Suggestion  Toward  a 
Rational  Bible-School  Curriculum,"  in  the 
Biblical  World,  Volume  XVI.,  page  98. 

H.  Clay  Trumbull:  The  Sunday  School:  Its 
Origin,  Mission,  Methods,  and  Auxiliaries 
(Philadelphia,  1896). 

Marianna  C.  Brown :  Sunday-School  Move- 
ments in  America  (New  York,  1901). 

SOCIETIES  AND  CLUBS 

William  Byron   Forbush :  The  Boy  Problem 

(Boston,  1901). 
Work  with    Boys    (magazine).     See  list    of 

Periodicals  and  Proceedings. 


SELECTED  AND  CLASSIFIED  BIBLIOGRAPHY  419 

Association  Boys  (magazine).  See  list  of 
Periodicals  and  Proceedings. 

Francis  E.  Clark:  Training  the  Church  of 
the  Future  (New  York,  1902). 

Winifred  Buck:  Boys'  Self -Governing  Clubs 
(New  York,  1903).  Treats  chiefly  of  clubs 
for  street  boys. 

F.  G.  Cressey:  The  Church  and  Young  Men 
(Chicago,  1903). 

Proceedings  of  the  Religious  Education 
Association,  1903  and  1904  (Chicago) 

George  A.  Dawson  and  others:  A  Boy's  Re- 
ligion (pamphlet,  published  by  the  Inter- 
national Committee  of  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Associations,  3  West  29th  St., 
New  York). 

George  A.  Coe :  The  Young  Men 's  Christian 
Association  and  the  Boy  (pamphlet,  pub- 
lished by  the  Secretarial  Institute,  153  La 
Salle  St.,  Chicago). 

ACADEMIES  AND  COLLEGES 

LeBaron  Russell  Briggs :  School,  College  and 
Character  (Boston,  1902). 

Francis  G.  Peabody :  The  Religion  of  an  Ed- 
ucated Man  (New  York,  1903).  Also  an 
article  in  the  Forum  for  July,  1901. 

The  Message  of  the  College  to  the  Church 


420     EDUCATION    IN   RELIGION   AND   MORALS 

(Boston,  1901).  Addresses  by  six  eminent 
educators. 

Charles  F.  Tliwing:  The  American  College 
in  American  Life  (New  York,  1897). 

Waitman  Barbe:  Going  to  College  (New 
York,  1899). 

J.  TI.  Canfield :  The  College  Student  and  His 
Problems  (New  York,  1902). 

J.  H.  Crooker:  Religious  Freedom  in  Amer- 
ican Education  (Boston,  1903). 

H.  Thistleton  Mark:  Individuality  and  the 
Moral  Aim  in  American  Education  (Lon- 
don, 1901),  Chapter  XIL 

H.  M.  Stanley:  Article,  "Remarks  on  Reli- 
gious Education,"  in  Educational  Review, 
Volume  XV,  page  392.  Contains  some 
pointed  remarks  concerning  the  college 
chapel  service. 

National  Conference  of  Secondary  Educa- 
tion (Chicago:  Northwestern  University). 

H.  D.  Sheldon:  Student  Life  and  Customs 
(New  York,  1901).  Chapter  V,  Section  6 
has  the  title,  "Religious  Organisations 
Among  Students."  A  bibliography  of  the 
subject  is  given  at  page  346. 

THE   RELATION  OF   STATE   SCHOOLS 
TO  MORALS  AND  RELIGION. 

Charles  H.  Thurber  and  John  W.  Carr:  Ad- 


SELECTED  AND  CLASSIFIED  BIBLIOGRAPHY  421 

.  -  c 

dresses  on  "Religious  and  Moral  Education 
Through  the  Public  Schools,"  in  Proceed- 
ings of  the  Religious  Education  Association 
for  1903  (Chicago).  Also  discussion  on 
pages  164-172. 

Edward  A.  Pace  and  William  T.  Harris: 
Addresses  in  Proceedings  of  the  National 
Educational  Association  for  1903 ;  also  the 
discussion  that  follows  these  addresses. 

Report  of  United  States  Commissioner  of  Ed- 
ucation for  1896-97,  p.  2171.  Statistics  on 
the  reading  of  Bible,  etc.,  in  public  schools. 

Report  of  United  States  Commissioner  of  Ed- 
ucation, 1888-89,  Volume  I,  page  629.  The 
celebrated  decision  of  the  Wisconsin  Su- 
preme Court  as  to  the  use  of  the  Bible  in 
schools. 

John  Ireland  (Archbishop)  :  Address  on 
"State  Schools  and  Parish  Schools,"  in 
Proceedings  of  the  National  Educational 
Association,  1890,  page  119. 

Levi  Seeley:  Article  on  "Religious  Instruc- 
tion in  American  Schools,"  in  Educational 
Review,  Volume  XV.,  page  121. 

E.  E.  White:  Address  on  "Religion  ia  the 
School,"  in  Proceedings  of  the  Interna- 
tional    Congress     of    Education    of     the 


422     EDUCATION   IN    RELIGION  AND   MORALS 

World's  Columbian  Exposition  (New  York, 
1894),  page  295. 

John  T.  Prince:  Article  on  "The  Bible  in 
Education,"  in  Educational  Review,  No- 
vember, 1898,  page  353. 

Felix  Adler:  The  Moral  Instruction  of  Chil- 
dren (New  York,  1895). 

Ella  Flagg  Young:  Ethics  in  the  School  (Chi- 
cago, 1902). 

R.  E.  Hughes:  The  Making  of  Citizens  (Lon- 
don, 1902).  For  the  relation  of  state  schools 
to  religion  in  Great  Britain,  France,  Ger- 
many, and  America,  consult  the  Index 
under  "Religion  in  the  School." 

H.  Thistleton  Mark:  Individuality  and  the 
Moral  Aim  in  American  Education  (Lon- 
don, 1901),  especially  Chapters  V.  and  X. 

J.  H.  Crooker:  Religious  Freedom  in  Amer- 
ican Education  (Boston,  1903).  A  plea  for 
a  purely  secular  state  and  for  purely  sec- 
ular schools 


INDEX 


Academies,  Christian,  325- 
330. 

Activity.  See  Expressive 
Activities. 

Adams,  J.,  417. 

Adaptation  to  the  Pupil, 
107.  174,  176,  291. 

Adjustment  to  Divine  En- 
vironment, 24. 

Adler.  F.,  422. 

Adolescence,  187  f.,  173  f., 
247  flf..  316  f.,  329  f. 

Adult  Point  of  View,  Over- 
Emphasis  of,  12. 

Aim  of  Education,  11-20. 

Aim  of  Sunday  School, 
286  f, 

Alculn,  142. 

American  Journal  of  Re- 
ligious Psychology  and 
Education,  408. 

Anger  of  Children,  57  f. 

Animism,  197  f..  218  ff. 

Anthropomorphism,  204. 

Apperception,  115  fif.,  291, 
384. 

Application.  Making  the, 
163  flf. 

Assimilation,  Mental.  See 
Apperception. 

Association  Boys  (Maga- 
zine), 409. 

Association  Outlook  (Maga- 
zine), 254  (note  1). 


Attention.      Securing     and 

Holding,  112  £P. 
Augustinlanism,    378  AT., 

383.   . 
Authority     In     Education, 

72-79,  92  fif..  208  fif.,  271- 

275,  312   (note). 
Authority    In   Religion,  312 

(note).  389-391,  401-403. 

Baldwin.  J.  M.,  224  (note), 

413. 
Baptist  View  of  Childhood, 

69. 
Barbe,  W.,  420. 
Barnes,  Earl,  413,  414. 
Bellord,  J..  368  (note). 
Bible,  The, 

Adaptation  of,  to  Pupils, 

160  flf.,   294  flf. 
and  Education,  391  flf. 
and   State   Schools,   355, 

357    (note),  358  f. 
and   the  Sunday   School, 
287    (note),  291,   303, 
386. 
Authority     of.     79 

(note  1). 
Historical    Study    of,    6, 

391  ff. 
Ignorance  of,  5,  386. 
Inspiration  of,  264  f. 
in    the    Colleges,    331  f., 

335,   339,   341. 
Introduction  to,  291. 


424 


INDEX 


Making   the    Application 
In  Teaching,  163  S. 

Memorising  of.  160  ff. 
Bible-Study  Union.  292. 
Biblical  World  (Magazine), 

408. 
Bibliography    of    Religious 

and    Moral    Education, 

407. 
Body  and  Mind.  43,  100  f., 

72.   138  f.,   323  f. 
Boys,   408.     See  also  Ado- 
lescence. 
Boys'    Camps    324.     324 

(note). 
Brlggs,  L. B.R.,256  (note), 

419. 
Brown.  E.  G.,  101  (note  3). 
Brown,    M.    C,    286    (note 

2),  302  (note),  408,  410, 

418. 
Buck,  W.,  410. 
Buddhism,  202  f. 
Bui wer-Lytton,    E.,    375 

(note). 
Burton,    E.    D..    and    Ma- 
thews, S..  286   (note  1), 

301,   417. 
Bushnell.      H.,      54,      146. 

383  ff.,  415    (bis). 
Butler,   N.    M.,    18    (note), 

23  f.,      29       (note).      42 

(note),  410. 

Canfield.   J.    H.,    420. 
Carr,    J.    W..    360    (note), 

420. 
Carter,   F.,   416. 
Catechetlcs,  158  ff.,  309  f. 
Catholics    and     Education, 

86,     354      (note),     362, 

363  ff. 


Catholic     Review    of    Re- 
views   (Magazine),    409. 
Chamberlain,    A.    F.,    229 

(note). 
Chapel  Service  In  Colleges, 

340  f.,  420. 
Character    and    Education, 

11  ff.,  348  ff.,   410-412. 
Character,    Attainment    of, 
58  ff..  103  f.,  119  ff..  166- 
168. 
Child,  The, 

and    the     Adult,    104  f., 

248  f.,   169  f 
and    Depravity,    44,    49- 

60,    65-69,    378  ff. 
and     the     Church.       8ee 
Church,   The,   and  the 
Child, 
and     the     Race,     211  f., 

218  ff. 
in  Modern   Education, 

12,    13  f.,   82,   102  f. 
.Tewish,   46  f.,    374. 
Mind     of,     115  ff.,     131, 
195,       204"  ff.,       212  f., 
351,    412  f. 
Natural,    216  f. 
Childhood, 

Christian  View  of,  44  ff., 

65  ff.,  415. 
Early,   230  ff. 
Later,  239  ff. 
Our  Deficient  Knowledge 
of,   226  f. 
Christ,    44  ff..    63  f.,    66  ff., 
87,     88,     121,     143-150, 
265,   374.   403  ff. 
Christian     Academies     and 

Colleges,  325  ff. 
Christian  Education,  63  f., 
209. 


INDEX 


425 


Christianity     and     Modern 

Education,  85  ff. 
Christianity    and    Play, 

145  ff. 
Christianity,  Social  Aspects 

of,    312     (note),    337  f., 

396-403. 
Church  Schools.    See  Chris- 
tian Academies  and  Col- 
leges,    and    Parochial 

Schools. 
Church,  The, 

Age    of    Joining,    254  f., 
276,  307  ff. 

and  Education,  70  ff.,  83, 
85  f. 

and     the     Child,     65  ff., 
373  ff. 

and   the   Family,   284  f. 

and  the  State,  194  ff. 

as   a   School,   288,   317  f. 

Institutional,  267  (note). 

its     Teaching    Function, 
287    (note). 
Cities.   Modem.  5,  16,  267 

(note),    278  f. 
Citizenship,    Training    for, 

337  f.,   348.  401  f. 
Clark,  F.  E.,  419. 
Clarke,   Adam,   68. 
Clubs,      306      (note    1), 

173  ff,   232  f.,   418  f. 
Coe,  G.  A.,  23    (note),  66, 

79    (note  2),   251    (note 

1),    254     (note    2),    261 

(note),   353    (note),   394 

(note),    410,    411.    414, 

415,    419. 
Cole^JL.   T.,  294    (note  2), 

309    (note  2). 
Colleges,  Christian,  325  ff., 

419  f. 
Comenlus.  J.  A.,  80,  380. 


Community  Life,  Education 
through.  See  Social  Ad- 
justment as  Means  of 
Education. 

Compayre,  J.  G..  18  (note), 
80  (note),  221  (note), 
413. 

Compulsion,  103  f.,  112, 
188  f. 

Concrete  Material  In  Edu- 
cation, 81,  83,  91  f., 
151  f.,   384.   393. 

Congregational  View  of 
Childhood.  67. 

Conscience,  223  f.,  341  f. 

Conversation  on  Religion, 
276  f. 

Conversion,  65  ff..  187  f., 
251,    302  ff.,    394  f. 

Cooke,  R.  J..  68.  415. 

Cressey.  F.  G..  306  (note 
1)    419. 

Crooker,  J.  H.,  420,  422. 

Cruelty   of  Children.   57. 

Curiosity  of  Children,  223, 
236  ff. 

Curriculum  of  the  Sunday 
School.  See  Lesson  Sys- 
tems. 

Davidson.  T.,  21  (note), 
42  (note).  80  (note), 
380    (note  2),  409,  411. 

Dawson,  G.  E.,  294  (note 
2),  403  (note),  414,419. 

Decision-Day,    307  ff. 

Defects  in  Religious  Edu- 
cation, 103  f..  128  ff., 
144  f..    158  ff.,    401  ff. 

Democracy,    5,   401  f. 

Dependence,  Sense  of,  202, 
219. 


426 


INDEX 


Denominational     Schools. 

See  Christian  Academies 

and  Colleges. 
Depravity,  44,  49-60,  65-69, 

378  ff. 
Development, 

and  Growth,  150  f. 

Education  as,  12.  88,  89, 
98  ff.,  119  ff.,  259,  286, 
328.  334  ff.,  378  ff., 
389  £. 

Normal,    221  f. 

Periods      of,      226ff., 
247  ff.,    294  ff. 
Devotional     Study    of    the 

Bible,  392. 
Dewey,  J.,  14  (note  2),  18 

(note),     19     (note),     36 

(note),   112    (note),   125 

(note),  410,   414. 
Dexter  and  Garlick.  412. 
Discipline, 

in  Academies,  329  f. 

in  the  Home,  136-142. 

in  the  Sunday  School, 
302  f. 

in  State  Schools,  348. 
Doctrine,  Teaching  of.  168- 

170. 
Dogma,  70,  353  f. 
Dogmatic    View    of    Chris- 
tianity, 312  (note),  315, 

342,    375  ff.,    386.    389  ff. 
Dogmatism     in     Teaching, 

327. 
Doubts,  Adolescent,  263  ff., 

346. 
Drummond,  H.,  312  (note). 
DuBois,     Patterson,     114 

(note),  115   (note),  411, 

416. 
Dutton,    S.    T.,    294    (note 

2),  416. 


Earle.  A.  M.,  52   (note). 
Ecclesiasticism,      Influence 

of,     upon     Education, 

375  ff. 
Edgerton    Case,    The.    357 

(note). 
Education, 

and  Authority.  See  Au- 
thority   in    Education. 

and  Depravity.  44,  49- 
60,  65-69,  378  ff. 

and  Environment,  109, 
181  ff. 

and  Man's  Destiny,  19- 
22. 

as  Development.  See  De- 
velopment. Education 
as. 

Christian.  44  ff.,  47  ff., 
63  f. 

Definitions  of,  19,  33, 
120. 

General,   27-29. 

Histories  of,  409  f. 

in  Relation  to  Morals 
and  Religion  (Bibliog- 
raphy). 410  f. 

in  Relation  to  the  Body, 
100  f. 

its  Aim,  11,  12  f.,  14-19, 
22-25. 

its  Factors,  11. 

Mediffival,  70  f.,  73. 

Modern,  12,  13,  70  ff., 
85  ff. 

of  Israel,  34. 

of  the  Individual,  36  f. 

of  the  Race.  35  f. 

of  Women,  257   (note). 

Religious, 

and  Authority.  See 
Authority  in  Educa- 
tion. 


INDEX 


427 


and  Pedagogical   Prin- 
ciples. 86  fif. 
and  Religious  Impulse. 
See     Religious     Im- 
pulse, The. 
Necessity  of,  21  ff. 
Theory     of.     Summar- 
ised, 195  f. 
^^^len  it  Should  Begin. 

206  f. 
Why    Neglected,    85  f. 
Educational  Reformers,  80- 

82. 
Educational     Review,     The 

(Magazine).    409. 
Egoism   of  Children,   57. 
Ellis,  A.  C.  408. 
Emergency,  the  Present,  in 
Moral  and  Religious  Ed- 
ucation, 6,  358. 
Emotions,  Training  of,  258- 

261.  263. 
Emotional     Conversions, 
251   (note  2),  308,  394  f. 
Ethical   End  of  Education, 

17  fif..  30  f.,  348-350. 
Ethics,      Study      of,      262, 

348  f. 
Evangelism.    See  Revivals. 
Evolution,  42.  59. 
Expressive    Activities,    83, 
90.   121-132,   139,   232  f., 
244  f.,  262  f.,  304  f..  309^ 
313,    323,    377,   384. 

Faculty  Psychology,  The, 
30. 

Faith,  402. 

Family,  Education  in  the, 
5,  26,  137  fif.,  217  f., 
241  ff.,  267  ( note), 271  ff., 
255  f.,  360  ff..  384,  415  f. 


Family      Life,      Education 

for.    337  f. 
Fatigue     of     the     Nerves, 

200  f. 
Fellowship.      See    Sharing 

of  Life  as  Means  of  Edu- 
cation. 
Fights    of    Children.      See 

Quarrels    of    Children. 
Flske,  John,  219. 
Fitch,  .T.,  418. 
Fletcher.  68. 
Forbush,  W.  B.,  304   (note 

2),    307    (note    1),    414, 

418. 
Foster,  M.   J.  C.  418. 
Freedom  in  Education,  83, 

92  ff.,      121  f.,      130-135, 

136  f..       187-191,       277, 

339  f.,  384. 
Froebel,  F.,  14,  82,  85,  131, 

212,     221     (note),    383, 

411. 

Games,     239  f.      See    also 

Play. 
Gang    Impulse,    The,    213, 

245  f.,  250,  253  f.,  255. 
Giving,  305. 
God, 

Anthropomorphism,    204. 

as    Educator,    33  ff.,    42, 
151  ff.,  201   (note). 

as  Environment  of  Man, 
25. 

Belief  in,   203  f. 

Immanence   of,    78,   390. 
Good  and  Evil  Impulses  in 

Children,   56  ff. 
Grace  of  God  given  to  Chil- 
dren,  53  ff.,   65  ff. 


428 


INDEX 


Gradation  of  Pupils,  291- 
294. 

Graded  Bible  School,  The 
(Pamphlets),    416. 

Graded  Lessons.  See  Les- 
son  Systems. 

Greed  of  Children,  57. 

Habit,  26  f.,  121,  188. 
Hall,    G.    S.,    221     (note). 

407,  413,  414. 
Hall,    Thomas    C,    393 

(note). 
Harris,  W.  T.,  353  (notej, 

421. 
Harrison,    E.,    142    (note).. 
Hartford    School    of    Reli- 
gious   Pedagogy,    289 

(note). 
Haslett,  S.  B.,  229  (note), 

234     (note),     407,     413, 

417. 
Herbart,  J.  F.,  81. 
Herbart  Society  Year-Book, 

411,  413. 
Hero- Worship,    252  f. 
Hervey,  W.  L..  289  (note), 

417. 
Hibbard,  F.  G.,  55   (note), 

68,   415. 
History  as  Study-Material, 

262. 
Holy  Spirit,  The,  55. 
Home,    The.     See    Family, 

The. 
Horne,    H.    H.,   25    (note), 

410. 
Hughes,  J.  L.,  131   (note), 

411. 
Hughes,  R.  E.,  422. 


Ideal  World,  Formation  of, 

200-206,  221-225. 
Imagination,  231  f.,  233  ff. 
Imitation,     108,     171  ff., 

217  f. 
Impression  and  Expression, 

69  ff.,     302-306,     313  ff.  ; 

See  also   Expressive  Ac- 
tivities. 
Impulse,  Religious.  See  He- 

ligious   Impulse. 
Impulses,    Good    and    Evil, 

in  Children,  56-60. 
Individualism,  396  ff. 
Individual,    Education   and 

the,    16  f.,    121. 
Infancy,   226  ff. 
Industrial   Conditions, 

Influence   of,    upon    Edu- 

catlon,     15  f.,      312 

(note).    349,    396  ff. 

upon  the  Home,  278  f. 

Instruction  and  Education, 

83,  106  f.,  225,  351,  353, 

375  ff.,     386,     389 ;     See 

also  Intellectual  Element 

in   Religion,   The. 
Intel  lee  tuallst    View    of 

Man,  15. 
Intellectualist    Viev?    of 

Education,  108. 
Interest,  109-114,  291  f. 
Internal  and  External  Fac- 
tors in  Education,  115  f.« 

213  f. 
International  Lessons,  292, 

300. 
Ireland,     J.,     367     (note), 

421. 
Israel,  Education  of,  34. 


INDEX 


429 


James,  W.,  18   (note).   114 

(note),    412   (Us). 
Jastrow,  M.,  38  (note). 
Jesus.     See  Christ. 
Jewish   Church,   374,  375. 
Jews,  The,  354  (note). 
Jones,  R.  M.,  414. 
Junior  Societies,  317-319. 

Kansas,  University  of,  345 

(note). 
Kindergarten,      The,      133, 

229. 
King,  H.  C,  394,  414,  415. 
King    I.,    112    (note),    227 

(note),  413. 
Kingdom  of  God,  The,   45  f., 

399  f. 
Kirkpatricli,   E.   A.,   413. 
Knowledge  as   an    End    of 

Education,  14  f. 

Laberthonnlere,  L.,  79 
(note  2),  368   (note). 

Laboratory,  The,  in  Edu- 
cation,   154  fF. 

Laurie,    S.    S.,   409. 

Law,  Training  in  Respect 
for,  221  f.,  230  f.,  241  ff., 
263,  273  ff. 

Laymen  and  Education, 
70,   287    (note). 

Laymen,  The  Religious 
Education   of,    337  f. 

"Learn   by    Doing,"    124  fif. 

Lesslng,  3§~^> 

Lesson-Systems, 

Graded,    291  f.,    294-300. 

300    (note). 
Uniform,    287    (note). 

Liberty.  See  Freedom  in 
Education. 


Library, 

for  S  u  n  d  a  y-S  c  h  o  o  1 
Teachers,  290  f. 

for    the    Sunday    School, 
303  f. 
Lies  of  Children,  56  f. 
Life,     Religion     as,    200  f., 

312         (note),        334  ff., 

373  f.,   387-391. 
Loba,   J.   F.,   415. 
Logos,  The,  201    (not«). 
Love  and  Law,  221  f., 273 ff. 
Love,   Divine  and   Human, 

221  f.,  265  ff. 
Luther%_M^&0. — 
Luxury^  Influence  of,  upon 

Children,   280  ff. 
Mackenzie,      J.      S., 

(note). 
Man, 

as  Educator,  33  ff.. 

Body     and     Mind. 
Body  and  Mind. 

His  Religious  Nature, 
22  f.,  37  ff.,  195  ff., 
208  ff.,   390. 

Intellectualist    View    of, 
15. 
Manual     Training,     154  ff., 

244,  348. 
Maplewood     Church,     Mai- 
den, Mass.,  306  (note  2). 
Maps     in     the     Sunday 

School,  303,  304. 
Mark,   H.   T.,   420,  422. 
Mather,  Cotton,  51  f. 
McKinney,   A.   H.,   417. 
McMurry,  C.  A.,  410,  412. 
McMurry,  F.  M.,  412. 
Mead,    G.    M.,    307    (note), 

417. 


120 


39  f. 

See 


430 


INDEX 


Mediaeval   Education,   12  f., 

70  ff. 
Memory  Work,  160  ff.,  240, 

287    (note). 
Menzies,    A.,   198. 
Message  of  the  College  to 

the  Church    (book),  419. 
Method    in     Education     in 

General,  6,  96  f.,   174. 
Method    in    Religious    Edu- 
cation, 26,  96,  373. 
Methodist    View    of    Child- 
hood. 67  f. 
Ministers,  Training  of,  289. 
Missions     and     Missionary 

Biography,  258,  262,  341. 
Modern     Education.        See 

Education,    Modern. 
Money,    Influence   of,    upon 

Children,   279,   283,   305. 
Monroe,  W.   S.,  407. 
Moody,  D.  L.,  312    (note). 
Moral  Health  of  Society,  5. 
Moral     Law.       See     Law, 

Training  in  Respect  for. 
Morals     and     Religion,     7, 

286. 
Morbidness,      260  f.,      315, 

342. 
Munroe,  J.   P.,  18    (note), 

80  (note),  287  (note  1), 

381,  409. 
Music    in    the    Sunday 

School,   302    (note). 

National  Educational  Asso- 
ciation, 408. 

National  Herbart  Society 
Year-Book,  411,  413. 

Natural  Impulses,  58  ff. 

Nature  as  Educator,  33  f., 
40-43, 


Nature-Study,   83,   117. 

Nerve-Fatigue,    260  f. 

New   Birth,   65  ff. 

New  Education,  The.  See 
Modern    Education. 

Normal  Class.  See  Teacher- 
Training. 

Normal  Religious  Develop- 
ment,  47  ff.,   221-225. 

Obedience,  92  ff.  See  also 
Law,  Training  in  Re- 
spect for. 

Object-Teaching,   156  ff. 

Organised  Classes,   306. 

Pace,  E.  A.,  352  (note), 
421. 

Parent  and  Child,  221,  242, 
255-257,  271  ff.,  308. 

Parents,  Vocation  of,  39  f. 

Parochial  Schools,  363- 
369. 

Pastor,  The,  289,  306  f., 
308,   318. 

Pattison,  T.  H.,  290  (note 
2). 

Paul,  35,  101, 

Pease,  G.  W.,  418. 

Peabody,    F.   G.,   419. 

Pedagogical  Seminary 
(Magazine).   409. 

Periodicals  and  Proceed- 
ings, 408. 

Periods  of  Development, 
226  ff.,  247  ff. 

Personal  Influence  in  Edu- 
cation, 171  ff.,  218-225. 
255  ff.,  300,  310  f.,  348, 
352,   354,   387. 

Personality,  98,  119  f., 
243  f. 


INDEX 


431 


Personal  Religion,  249. 
Pestalozzi,  81,  85,  131. 
Physical    Training.      See 

Body  and  Mind. 
Pictures     in     the     Sunday 

School,    304,    305. 
Piety  and  Education,  389  ff. 
Pike,   J.   G.,   52. 
Plato,  100. 
Play,    136,    142-150,    229, 

239-241,  348. 
Pledges  in  Young  People's 

Societies,    321  f. 
Popular    Education,    82  f.. 

87  f.,    312     (note);    See 

also     State,     The,     and 

Education. 
Popular    Government    and 

Religion,  5. 
Power  as  an  End  of  Edu- 
cation, 15  f. 
Practical  Education,  21. 
Prayer,    Family,    217  f., 

283  f. 
Presbyterian   View   of   the 

Child,  66  f. 
Press,    The,    as    Educator, 

183  ff. 
Prince,  J,  T.,  422. 
Principles  of  Religious  Ed- 
ucation (book),  411,  414, 

417, 
Protestantism,   367-369, 

380  f.,  402. 
Psychology  and  Education, 

6,     29  f.,     100  f.,    127  f., 

287,  291,  412  ff. 
Psychology  of  Adolescence, 

247  f. 
Psycho-Physical    Organism. 

Bee  Body  and  Mind. 


Publicity,    Effect    of    upon 

the     Young,     185,     261, 

316  f. 
Public  Schools,  of.,  348  ff. 

See  also  State,  The,  and 

Education. 
Punishment,   136-142,   230, 

271  ff. 
Puritan     Attitude     toward 

Children,  51  f.,  379  f. 
Pythagoras,  100. 

Quarrels    of    Children, 

149  f.,  213,  245. 
Questions,    Children's.    See 

Curiosity  of   Children. 
Quick,    R.    H.,    80    (note), 

409, 

Race,  The  Human, 

Education  of,  35  f.,  126, 

151-153. 
Religious     Heritage     of, 
23  f. 
Reading  in  the  Home,  283. 
Reason    and     Imagination, 

233-236. 
Recapitulation,  Theory   of, 

211-215. 
Reformation,  The,  380  f. 
Regeneration.    See  New 

Birth. 
Religion, 

and     Life,     200  f.,     275, 
334-336, 341-344, 373  f., 
387-391. 
and    Modern    Education, 

70  ff.,  85  ff.,  334. 
and  Morals,  7,  286. 
and    Sectarianism,    356. 
Intellectual    Element   in, 


432 


INDEX 


168-170,  262-265,   284, 
308,  338  ff.,  375  fiC. 

Psychology  of,  414 ;  See 

also  Religious  Impulse, 

The ;     Psychology     of 

Adolescence,  etc. 

Religious    Education.      See 

Education,  Religious. 
Religious    Education    Asso- 
ciation,   The,    408,    417. 

419. 
Religious    Authority.      See 

Authority  in  Religion. 
Religious      Impulse,      The, 

22  f.,  37  ff.,  60-63,  195  £E., 

208  £C.,   390. 
Religious    Preparation    for 

Entering     College,     345- 

347. 
Revivals,  312  (note), 382  f., 

384,  394  f. 
Riis,  J.,  416. 
Rishell,  C.  W.,  68. 
Roarls,  R.  N.,  412. 
Rosenkranz,    J.    K.    F.,    33 

(note). 
Rousseau,  J.  J.,  81. 

Scholasticism,  70  fiC.,  77  ff., 

375  ff. 
School,  The  Sunday  School 

as  a,  26,  287. 

The  Church  as  a,  288. 
Science,  Modern,  15,  71,  86. 
Scientific  Spirit,  71  (note). 
Scriptures.    See  Bible,  The. 
Scudder,  H.   E.,  379. 
Sectarianism,      327,      350, 

354,    356. 
Secularisation    of    the 

Schools,  70-74,  85  f.,  351. 


Seeley,  L.,  421. 

Self-Assertion,  250,  402. 

Self-Consciousness,    248. 

Self-Expression.  See  Ex- 
pressive Activities. 

Self,  Man's  Real,  99,  119  f., 
203. 

Self-Real  isation,  119  ff., 
79  ff.,  204  ff. 

Sensori-Motor  Arc,  The, 
127  f. 

Sentiments,  Training  The, 
258-261. 

Service,  The,  of  Man  as 
Means  of  Education,  258, 
260,  262  f.,  278,  283, 
305,  309,   339,  341,  346. 

Sex,  Teaching  Regarding, 
237,  238  (note),  256 
(note). 

Sharing  of  Life  as  Means 
of  Education,  174-183. 
255  ff.,  271-277,  329. 

Sheldon,   H.   D.,  420. 

Smith,   W.   W.,  417. 

Smyth,  N.,  43   (note). 

Social  Adjustment  as  Aim 
of  Education,  16  f.,  19  f., 
21  f.,  83  f.,  94  f.,  396- 
403. 

Social  Adjustment  as 
Means  of  Education, 
167  f.,  171  ff.,  230  f.,  239- 
243, 245  f.,  265-267,  328 f., 
342-344,  348. 

Social  Aspects  of  Chris- 
tianity, 312  (note),  394, 
398-401. 

Social  Instinct,  The,  224, 
248  f.,    253  f.,    258, 


INDEX 


433 


Social    Problem,    The,    and 

Education,  396-403. 
Social  Service.    Sec  Service 

of  Man  as  Means  of  Edu- 
cation. 
Society,    Moral    Health    of, 

5. 
Sociology,   262. 
Spalding,  J.  L.,  42  (note), 

356,     364      (note).     368 

(note). 
Spencer,  H.,   18  (note),  142, 

274  (note),  416. 
Spiritual    Life   of    Sunday- 
School      Teachers,      291, 

300,  310  f. 
Stanley,  H.  M.,  420. 
Starbuck,  E.  D.,  23  (note), 

251  (notel),  255  (note), 

410,  414. 
State,   The, 

and  the  Church,  194  ff. 

and   Education,   70  f., 

82  f.,  85  f.,  326,  344  f., 

348  ff.,  420. 
State  Universities,  344  f. 
Stewart,  G.  B.,  415. 
Stories  and  Story  Telling, 

229,  231  f.,  233-236,  299, 

304,  374. 
Studies    in    Education 

(Magazine),  409. 
Suggestion,  171-173. 
Sully,    J.,    58    (note),    163 

(note),  219    (note),  222 

(note  2). 
Sunday    School,   The, 

Aim,  etc.,  286  f. 

and  Junior  Society,  319. 

and    State   Schools,   301, 
354,  360  ff. 


and   Young   People's   So- 
cieties, 320  f. 

Movement,  385  f. 

Superintendent,  289, 
293  f. 

Teachers,      362,      290  f., 
300,  310  f. 
Sunday-School      Outlook, 

The    (book),   417, 

Tabernacle     Church,     The* 

Chicago,    306    (note    2). 
Taylor,  A.  R.,  413, 
Teacher,   The, 

and      the      Child,      102, 
310  f.,  329,  342  ff.,  348. 

Vocation  of,  39  f. 
Teachers'      Meeting,     The, 

290. 
Teacher-Training    for    the 

Sunday    School,     262, 

290  f.,    337  f. 
Text-Books.     Function     of, 

154. 
Theological    Schools,   289. 
Thurber,  C.  H.,  420. 
Thwing,  C.  F.,  420. 
Tompkins,   A..  18    (note). 
Tracy,  F.,  413. 
Trumbull,  H.   C.  407,  409, 

418. 

Ullrick,  D.  S.,  292  (note). 

Unconscious  Element, 
The,  in  Education,  171- 
174,  180  f.,  310  f. 

Uniform  Lessons.  See  Les- 
son Systems.  Uniform. 

United  States  Commission- 
er of  Education,  Reports 
of.  421. 

Universal  Education.  See 
Popular  Education, 


INDEX 


VanDyke,  H..  415. 

VanLiew.C.  C.,212   (note). 

Vinet.  A.,  311    (note). 

Virtue  Learned  by  Prac- 
tice. 349. 

Voluntaristic  View  of 
Man.  See  Intellectualist 
View  of  Man. 

Volunteer  Movement  for 
Foreign  Missions,  341. 

Vows  and  Pledges  in 
Young  People's  Societies, 
321  f, 

Watson,  68. 
Wesley,  J..  68. 
Wesleyan    Revival,    382  f. 
Whedon,  D.  D.,  68. 
Wbite,  E.  E.,  421. 
Will,    Enlisting    the,    187- 

191, 
Willcox.  G,  B.,  309, 


Wisconsin  Supreme  Court 
Decision  regarding  the 
Bible  in  the  Schools,  357. 

Women,  Higher  Education 
of,  257  (note). 

Wonder-Stories,   233-236. 

Work  with  Boys  (Maga- 
zine), 408,  416,  418. 

Worship,  258,  260,  276 
(note),  301,  302,  305. 
306  f..   399  f. 

Young,  E.   F.,  422. 

Young  Men's  Christian  As- 
sociations, The,  254.  312, 
323.  341  f. 

Young  People's  Societies, 
258,  261,  288.  312  £C., 
320  f. 

Young  Women's  Christian 
Associations.  The,  312, 
341  f. 


This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 

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MAR  15  ly^'   NOV  9    1949 
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*      DEC  6 
DEC  1 0  ^96S 


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